Rail in Italy

I'm not going to address the Italian part of your trip, but for Munich to Salzburg to Venice I think you can do better without a rail pass. I assume you are flying into MUC. The S-bahn goes from there to Ostbahnhof, where you can catch a regional train to Salzburg. You can do all of this travel on the day you arrive using a Bayern-Ticket, €29 for both of you. Buy it at the automat on the S-Bahn station platform or from the Bahn counter in the Munich Airport Center, above the station (that will cost you an extra €2 for personal service). Take the S8 (LH platform) to the Ostbahnhof, go to platform 8, and catch the first RE (Regional Express to Salzburg). There are no reservations on this train. If you are going to spend a few days in Munich before going to Salzburg, go from the airport to town with a Gesamtnetz Partner Tageskarte (€20). That ticket will cover your travel by S-Bahn into town and any other travel that day by any conveyances in the Munich metro area. Then buy the Bayern-Ticket on the day you go to Salzburg. If you purchase online far enough ahead on the Austrian Rail website (www.oebb.at), you can get tickets to Venice for as low as €29/p in 2nd class. This connection uses a train to Villach, Austria, then a modern, intercity bus run by Austrian Rail the rest of the way to Venice. The online ticket will include seat reservations on the bus and you can buy reservations (optional) for the train at the time of purchase. As for travel in Italy, I'm sure our Italy experts will tell you that a rail pass is rarely cost effective in Italy. If you purchase them online or in advance at the station, you can get discounted Mini Fare tickets. Reservations are included in the price for point-point ticket but an extra cost with a rail pass.

Emily, Lee has provided a thorough and excellent description of your rail travel options in Germany and Austria. A few comments on rail travel in Italy. To begin with, it's usually not cost effective to use a Railpass in Italy, as the Pass DOES NOT include the compulsory reservation fees. You'd have to pay "out of pocket" for those. It's EXTREMELY important to ensure you have reservations on trains where these are compulsory, as without them you may face hefty fines, which will be collected on the spot and they're not cheap! Fines may also be levied for those that don't validate tickets on Regionale trains. Most of your rail trips in Italy will likely be via "premium" trains which require reservations. You can save money by booking those online using the Trenitalia website and getting discounted "Mini" tickets. Those are limited though, so once they're sold out, the price goes up to the next tier. One point to mention though - the Trenitalia website is currently "under revision" and some here have reported that it's not exactly "user friendly". There's also a new Italo train, but routes are very limited at this point. You can also easily buy tickets in Italy, either from staffed ticket windows or from the automated Kiosks. What I'd probably do in the same situation is to buy the tickets for ALL my trips upon arrival in Venice, using the Kiosks. That might mean paying full price for the trip from Venice to Verona, but it might be possible to get discounted "Mini" fares for the Verona-Vernazza, Vernazza-Florence and Florence-Rome trips. Check the Trenitalia website to see departure times and other details for each of your trips. Be sure to note which trains are Regionale and BE SURE to validate your tickets in the yellow machine prior to boarding. Buon Viaggio!

Venice-Verona: Regionale trains make the trip in a little over two hours and the 2nd class fare is €7.40. No discount for advance purchase and no reservations are possible. High-speed EuroStar Italia trains make the trip in just over one hour. The standard 2nd class fare is €21.50. The best Mini fare is €9.00, but I expect they're already gone for June and July. The next Mini fare is €19.00. Verona-Vernazza: If you take only regionale trains which require several connections, the fare is €19.55. The standard 2nd class fare for a high-speed train from Verona to Milano is €21.50. It will cost around another €25.00 to take a combination of an IC train to Sestri Levante and a regionale train from there to Vernazza. Vernazza-Florence: €11.10 if all legs are on regionale trains. Around €19.00 if one leg is on an IC train. Florence-Rome: €17.15 on a direct regionale train that takes 4 hours. The standard 2nd class fare on a high-speed EuroStar Italia train that makes the trip in just over 90 minutes is €45.00. The best Mini fare is €9.00.