tickets from rome to venice then venice to munich

This is not something where a rail pass would benefit you, unless you plan on taking a number of other trains for small trips.

To find out the prices for tickets, just go to the Italian rail website, where you can find the cost of all the tickets when you search for the different routes.

One of the main reasons why a rail pass would not benefit you is that between Rome and Venice you will be on either a Eurostar Italia (ES) or an Alto Velocita (AV) train, which are the most comfortable trains in Italy. Both of these trains have mandatory reservation fees. These fees are built into the cost of a point-to-point ticket, but if you have a rail pass you would need to pay the additional reservation fee. That and the fact that point-to-point travel in Italy is much cheaper than most other western European countries.

Buy your Rome-Venice tickets after you arrive in Rome.

For timetables for all your routes, go to www.bahn.de. Click on the flag drop-down menu for English. Use Roma, Venezia Santa Lucia, and Muenchen rather than English spellings. After you get summary timetables for a route, click on the arrow to the left of each departure time to see the connecting points, if any.

IMO, your best choices for Venice-Munich are a departure at 06:20 with a connection at Verona Porta Nuova, a departure at 11:09 with a connection at Verona Porta Nuova, a direct train departing at 13:20, and the direct night train departing at 22:51.

If you book well in advance (up to 90 days allowed) at bahn.de, you can get a Europa-Spezial Italien fare of €53 for the direct 13:20 day train or for the Verona-Munich leg if you connect in Verona. Buy tickets for the Venice-Verona leg in either Rome or Venice. Booking well in advance at bahn.de can also get you discount fares on the direct night train.

I'm also trying to book tickets from Venice to Munich from the US but am unable to do so on the Trenitalia site b/c they are not excepting foriegn CC and the bahn.de site is not allowing me to make the purchase either since the trip originates in a different country. Is it even possible for me to buy reservations and tickets for this trip from within the US?

Michael,

As I said in my post above, you can book a DIRECT Venice-Munich train on the DB site, either the 13:20 day train or the 22:51 night train. You can also book any other train that goes directly from a point in Italy (like Verona) to a point in Germany (like Munich). Book ASAP (up to 90 days in advance) to get discount fares.

Got it..thanks. I see on the DB site that I'm able to buy my ticket from Verona to Munich b/c it is direct whereas the train from Venice requires a change in Verona. Now I just have to worry about buying my ticket from Venice to Verona.

Michael,

Buy your Venice-Verona ticket when you get to Venice. No need to stand in line at a window. The ticket machines at the station have an English option and accept North American credit cards.