Help with Travel in Italy

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Hi
We will be doing the following trip
6 May 12 Venice - Florence
10 May 12 Florence - Naples
13 May 12 Naples - Rome

Our questions are
1. What are the best options?
We have read about advance purchase but not sure how far in advance we can buy the tickets.  We are locked in for dates and dont want to have to worry about buying tickets as we go.  Would much rather sightsee. 
2.  What stations do the trains depart from?
Looking at different web sites the trains seem to depart from  different stations in each city.  Hope that makes sense.
In Venice, Florence & Naples we are trying to find accommodation near the station from where the train leaves.  We dont want to be draging bags around.

As two 50plus ladies we appreciate your help.
Thanks

What are the best options?

Idea of "best" is different for everybody But since you prefer not to worry about buying tickets during the trip, then the most reasonable option is to visit TrenItalia website (trenitalia.com), select the connection you like and purchase in advance discounted ticket for it (in order to do so, you need to select "MINI" offer among the fares offered, that is the discounted one, which allows you to save up to 60%. Number of discounted tickets is limited, so it makes sense to look for those as early as possible.

We have read about advance purchase but not sure how far in advance we can buy the tickets

As of today (Dec.5) the last day for which you can purchase discounted ticket for domestic high-speed EuroStar trains is January 22, 2012, thus it makes 48 days in advance, while in case of slightly slower InterCity trains number of days even greater - last day here is April 4. We just recommend time to time in March check the website (when all the option will be already on sale) and then make you mind about specific connections.

What stations do the trains depart from?

In Venice it will be "Venezia Santa Lucia" (or Venezia St.L), in Florence - "Firenze S.M.N", in Naples - "Napoli Centrale" and in Rome - "Roma Termini". All the above stations considered to be main and central of the respective cities.

Thanks heaps  :)Appears we were on the right track..ha ha.
We were confused about Venice because we were told the train left from Mestre and we were going to stay near the station there.
Keep up the good work.
Regards

We were confused about Venice because we were told the train left from Mestre and we were going to stay near the station there.

Well, you need to be careful with stations, especially in case of Venice. Since it is "Venice St.Lucia" which is located actually in Venice, while "Venezia Mestre" is the station on the mainland in town called Mestre and it's like 10-12 min. by train between them.
Though, to give you full picture, some of the transit trains does go from Venezia Mestre to Florence/Rome omitting Venice St.Lucia station. So in order to catch those you'll need specifically go to "Venice Mestre", but that is only a few and in your case it's not the option since there are a plenty of trains directly from Venice St.Lucia.