What's the best way to travel from Nice to Milan to Venice to Florence and then Rome?

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Mor

The pass is a good idea and costs less if you buy it outside of Italy. Most passes cover all local transport but it depends on the city. In Turin Iknow that the train pass also covers bus and cablecar fees.

BTW, you'll want to take the quickest trains - Eurostar or if not available then Intercity (IC) but don't take a regional - they stop at every station.
I normally like 1st class and it's worth the price to have some leg room and quiet - whenever I have opted to travel 2nd class to save a fee bucks I have regretted it (and I mean for the long trips, 2nd class is okay for the short trips).

CAPTAIN BEAR

Take the train, its probably the best way to get to your destinations. Buying a pass would be wisest but it doesn't cover other transport within each city. There are luggage storage at all the train stations. A bit of advice, have your tickets and seats verified as otherwise you will find some gentleman in your seat and he won't budge an inch. I have seen this happen too many times and a bit of firmness usually does the trick.

conley39

The passes like Eurorail only cover the train. Even then, you would need to pay supplemental for intercity, eurostar or alta velocita trains. It's usually cheaper to buy single tickets.

Trenitalia does have price information for most trains on-line. You need to pick a future date to be able to price the regional trains. Note that you can get the discounted Amica fare on trains where it's available. You can get the Amica fare 1 to 60 days in advance of your travel date if it hasn't been sold out on the higher speed trains. It's not available on regional trains.

Nice to Milan is 30 euro 2nd class on a euro city train.

Milan to Venice train fare is 22 euro (17.80 Amica) for an intercity plus train or 25.20 euro (22.20 Amica) for a Eurostar city train. It's possible to go a little cheaper by taking a regional train from Milan to Verona and changing to a regional train to Venice there. The travel time will be much longer though. The convenience, comfort, and speed of the faster trains is worth the difference in this case.

Venice to Florence is 21.50 euro 2nd class or 17.40 if you can get the Amica fare on the IC Plus. A faster ES or alta velocita train costs 32.30 euro (25.80 Amica). It is possible to go cheaper if you take a regional train to Bologna and change to another regional train for Florence there. However, this takes a lot longer, there aren't a lot of regional trains, and it's much less convenient especially with luggage.

The train between Florence and Pisa is 5.60 euro each way. But I would recommend that you go to Pisa early in the morning to see the tower, duomo, and baptistry. Then go on to Lucca for the rest of the day. Lucca is 20 to 25 minutes depending on the train and costs 2.40 euro. A train from Lucca to Florence at the end of the day costs 5 euro.

The ES from Florence to Rome is 36.10 2nd class (28.90 Amica). There are a few cheaper regional trains for 15.80. The travel time is about two hours longer though.

Stan

I've traveled all those routes except Milan to Venice and Florence to Pisa. Normally, I'd say to avoid rail europe because they change an extra $18 for fedex delivery of tickets, but since you will be purchasing at least 4 tickets and that comes to less than $5 ticket then that isn't so bad and you can have the piece of mind of having all your tickets in hand.

2nd class if fine. None of the trips you described are so long that you will require a sleeper car in which I recommend upgrading - and if you travel by day you can enjoy the scenery and keep an eye on your luggage. Smaller items you can keep with you - larger items can be stowed at the end of the car.

If you want to save some money I'd recommend going to the train station and purchasing your tickets a couple days in advance.

Nice - Milan, $48
Milan - Venice, $43
Venice - Florence, $55
Florence - Pisa, $19
Pisa - Florence, $19
Florence - Rome, $43

Total $227 + $18 fedex delivery

A 5 day France / Italy rail pass is $452. Buying the tickets individually will be the way to go.

When you get to Milan and Rome they sell week long metro passes that will allow you unlimited travel on municipal transportation.

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