Traveling from La Spezia to Munich 2018

Depending on which is cheaper I would either take the train to Milan MXP and fly direct on Easy Jet.
https://www.easyjet.com/en?

or
La Spezia to Florence and catch the Night Jet at 21:05 to Munich
https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml

I see the Nightjet is showing 145 EUR for the whole family, but no couchettes or sleeping compartments available for your date. That means sitting in regular seats for 12 hours through the night. So how tight is your budget? Flights from Pisa are 147 EUR each.

Night trains are getting less and less popular. And you would be missing some incredible mountain scenery at night.
I would take a day train over to Verona and then up thru the Brenner Pass to Innsbruck. Spend the night there and catch an a.m. 2 hr. train into Muchen.

Like Sam, I see on BahnCard.de that the journey on the night train (Florence to Munich) can be purchased for 145 euros for all 5 travelers, but no couchette; regular seats only.

So I looked at RailEurope just as a backup and it says it is too early to book this journey. So perhaps if you wait a bit, until 90 days out, you can book a couchette. Just thinking out loud here. . . .

Thanks Jazz, that was great info.

Sam, our budget is "whatever is cheapest without making it too unconfortable" LOL - All I know is that his trip is costing WAY more than I first thought. I have figured out that my dates aren't available to book yet. I can only get a price up to the end of May. I imagine I will have to keep an eye on the website for when they open up July for booking.

David, I am starting to see what you are saying. Although the "adventure" of traveling by night train had it's draw, the fact that we will be "missing" the scenery along the way is making me change my mind about the night train.

Lola, yup. I think are correct. Too early to get a train booking.

Summary: Easy Jet looks like the most convenient with a great price. But after thinking about what David said, my wife and I are leaning back on the day train so we could see the scenery along the way. It's a long haul, but I won't be driving and I could be enjoying the sites along the way.

hugo,

Have you got the option of making an intermediate stop for one night? Another option would be to travel from La Spezia to Verona, stay one night and have a look at the town, and then continue to Munich the next day. There's a direct EC train departing Verona Porta Nuova at 09:04, arriving 14:26 (travel time 5H:22M). There are currently savings fares of €39.90 PP shown. The trip through the Brenner Pass is very scenic, so best to do that in the day time.

Flying would be alot cheaper, overnight trains are now a luxury and are quite expensive.

Thanks all for such great information.

We have decided on forgetting the budget (LOL) and take in as much of Europe as we can. We are BIG road trip fans and being in a car for 8-10 hours stopping along the way is nothing hard for us.

So we have opted to take a train from La Spezia to Florence, then pick up a car and drive. We had planned on picking up a car in Munich anyways to get to Heilbronn (where we are ultimately ending up to meet with family). So renting a car was always going to be part of the trip. But now we will be picking it up one day earlier, paying an outrageous drop off fee (from Italy to Germany), BUT we will get to enjoy the drive, and in the end, the cost of the drop off fee + gas + tolls is still less than flight for 5 adults + bags.