Traveling through Italy and France in July

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I'm hoping to get some help with organising my honeymoon travel through Italy and into France this July. My new wife and I will be flying into Rome where we're hoping to go for a daytrip to Pompeii while we're there. Then we're planning on traveling via train up to Venice, then across to Monterosso (in the Cinque Terre region), and finally across to Nice.

In trying to prepare for the trip I've noticed that I can't find information yet on the Trenitalia site for the dates that I'm after, which brings me to my first question - how far in advance should this information be available so that I can check prices and purchase tickets?

I'm still trying to determine whether I should go with a Eurail pass or just book the tickets directly, so any advice on this front would be appreciated as well. Our itinerary is 99% locked in so I don't think that we'll need the flexibility of a pass but I'm happy to take any advice onboard!

Lastly I'd like to know about traveling in first class vs. second class on the routes we're looking at - I haven't been able to find much information on what the difference is to make a judgement about whether it's worth paying the extra for first class, so again any advice anyone may have would be greatly appreciated.

I'm so glad this site and these forums exist as it's really quite daunting trying to organise train travel throughout Europe! Thanks in advance 

how far in advance should this information be available so that I can check prices and purchase tickets?

In case of Italy and TrenItalia long distance trains (for which you can purchase tickets, including discounted, online) it is usually 60 days in advance. For instance, today it is not a problem to buy cheap ticket Rome-Venice for June 11.

I'm still trying to determine whether I should go with a Eurail pass or just book the tickets directly, so any advice on this front would be appreciated as well.

Well, let us simply count...
Rome-Pompei: basically here you main goal is Rome-Napoli, from Napoli to Pompei it is already local cheap connection. So Rome-Napoli route can be traveled with help of a few train types: InterCity (app. 2-2:30, full standard ticket 22 EUR, while discounted offer tickets (tariff Mini) start from 11 EUR), EuroStar FRECCIAROSSA trains (app. 1:10, full tariff - 45 EUR, discounted from 36 EUR), EuroStar (app. 1:40, 36 EUR and 14 EUR), Espresso (app. 2-2:30, 13-16 and 7-10 EUR respectively) and Regional (app. 2-2:30, 10.5 EUR standard fare). So as you can see, you can actually travel really cheap, even involving high-speed EuroStar trains.
Napoli-Pompei it is already suburban line of Circumvesuviana, trains run often and cost only 2.8 EUR (http://www.vesuviana.it/web/en)
Napoli-Venice: similar thing with tickets - earlier you buy the cheaper tariff you get. For instance for direct IC train you can get ticket for as low as 28 EUR, a bit more expensive for high-speed EuroStar FRECCIAROSSA etc. Just click on the option you like and figure out if you are ok with the fare
Venice-Monterosso: will need quite a few changes, but the algorithm of finding you best fare is similar as in previous cases. Just a random choice of EuroStar City and IC gave us 18 EUR fare for June.
Monterosso-Nice: here it is better to avoid expensive international fare, so cheaper to purchase two separate tickets - one Monterosso-Ventimiglia (last Italian station before the border) and the other one Ventimiglia-Nice. Monterosso-Ventimiglia cost 14.6 EUR with Regional trains (no purchase in advance required), or as low as 13 EUR (MINI offer) in case of InterCity trains. Ventimiglia-Nice full ticket cost only 6.7 EUR
Resume: we would definitely recommend going with point to point tickets, especially since you  already know you exact itinerary.

Lastly I'd like to know about traveling in first class vs. second class on the routes we're looking at - I haven't been able to find much information on what the difference is to make a judgement about whether it's worth paying the extra for first class, so again any advice anyone may have would be greatly appreciated.

On most regional trains there is simply no 1st class available. On long-distance and high speed trains you might chose 1st class, but usually the value of it is a bit exaggerated. 2nd class in all of the EuroStar trains (which is rather new) basically will give you almost the same comfort. 

Thanks for your advice, it's very helpful

As a follow-up, I thought I'd check on trains for our first journey which is planned for July 24, Rome to Venice. TrenItalia only shows one route leaving at 19:05, but if I search on another site which I recently found (www.raileurope.com.au), there's at least 6 different options listed there. I've also checked this with other dates closer to now and they show similar results.

I'm a little confused - I thought that TrenItalia would show me all of the options? Have I somehow done something wrong here? The other site has some interesting information but the prices they're quoting for tickets are ridiculous.

As a follow-up, I thought I'd check on trains for our first journey which is planned for July 24, Rome to Venice. TrenItalia only shows one route leaving at 19:05

Well, the thing is here that TrenItalia sell domestic tickets only certain number of days ahead of the journey, thus your July 24 is out of this range yet. Just checked, as of today, TrenItalia website sell tickets for dates up to June 11. For any further, it is only international trains listed (the one leaving 19:05), with them it is a bit different timing for ticket purchase. So we suggest you just to click on dates before June 12 and see needed timetable and fares, while with time similar tickets will be available for July as well.

The other site has some interesting information but the prices they're quoting for tickets are ridiculous.

As a rule, we do not recommend to use those guys, because they are an agency charging rather high commission, thus basically tricking naive passengers to pay more for what costs less

Ok, thanks again for the advice 

If you intend to travel a bit more around Nice by train, perhaps Carte Isabelle will be relevant to you.

For EUR 12, you wil enjoy unlimited travel on regional services (excluding the very scenic, yet non-SNCF Nice-Digne line), anywhere further East from Fréjus, with no restricted hours.

Please also note that French km-based fare, as sold by SNCF (and Raileurope?) is usually a bit cheaper than French TCV sold outside France.

Thanks for the advice Direct-Orient

I have a couple more questions. I'm now able to book the first leg of my journey via the Trenitalia website. For this leg we're looking at travelling first class and we'd like to book two seats facing each other with the corridor (i.e. no other seats) next to us. I'm confused by the seat descriptions option when I'm booking - do I want window, median or corridor?

Will we have any issues with these seats and travelling with a couple of suitcases?

Thanks again.

First of all, it is a bit difficult to advise you something, since you didn't mention which train (thus train/carriage type on your preferred route) you plan to use. Different trains - different 1st class

I'm confused by the seat descriptions option when I'm booking - do I want window, median or corridor?

Usually when such formula (window, median or corridor) is offered, it mean that we are talking about compartment (something like this - http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/it/car/express/GC/interior/11.jpg). On the contrary in different carriage type, 1st class might be air-style type (like this - http://citytransport.info/Digi/P1050371a.jpg)

Apologies, I'm usually very careful about including every detail when I'm asking a question. Based on those pictures I'm after advice on the latter - the train that is running from Rome to Venice is the ES Italia AV 9408 FRECCIARGENTO. What do you think?

Ok, then the task is easier. We email you seats scheme for the mentioned train type (Pendolino ETR 600), so check your mail you entered when registered on the forum. There you can see exact seat numbering for the first class carriages (#1 and #2). So when purchasing you ticket, just choose 1 class and then manually enter carriage and seat number you want, that should ensure that you get exactly what you want

Excellent, thank you, I secured exactly the seats that we wanted!

I'm now looking at the next leg of our journey from Venice to Monterosso al Mare. Trenitalia is only showing options going via Milan where we would make our only change with approximately 40 minutes between trains. This sounds pretty reasonable to me, although the travel time of 6 hours is quite long. Is this the best option or would I do better to look at alternative routes?

Is this the best option or would I do better to look at alternative routes?

Though geographically route via Milan looks a bit strange, but actually the one presumably more direct (via Bologna-Parma) is the same in case of timing, but will require at least two train changes, thus option via Milan with one change might be preferable even taking into account 'curve' on the map. To go via Bologna makes sense only when you plan to use regional train on all legs