You could find all the answers to these questions in a minute and a half of looking through old posts.

1. It appears that you’re only taking 6 or 7 train trips, so a 10 day railpass is more than enough — and for Rome to Florence it may be cheaper to buy a ticket than use a day of a railpass.

2. Your railpass does not generally cover local transportation within a city. It will usually cover local commuter trains, but not the subways, trams and buses you’re going to be taking to get around cities. Further, why would you use 25 to 50 per day “worth of railpass” to cover 5 euros worth of local transportation?

3. While most trains don’t require reservations, the express trains between major cities and virtually all overnight trains do. Reservations aren’t covered by your railpass. The cheapest way is to buy them at the train station in Europe. Your railpass will be your ticket for overnight trains but you will need to purchase a reservation for whatever type of sleeping accommodation you choose.

4. A rail day is midnight to midnight. You can take as many trains as you like during that 24 hour period. The exception is the “7:00 PM rule.” If you take an overnight train that leaves after 7:00 PM and arrives after midnight (with no connections before midnight), you only mark one day — arrival day — on your pass.

What 4 countries? Don’t they have to be connected? The pass also has to cover any countries that you travel through even though you may not be spending a night in that country(Trains from Germany to Italy go through Austria). Verify by calling the railpass company directly and discuss your route with them. Listen to Old Lady and be sure to read up on how to use the pass so you do not make mistakes and get fined by the train conductors.
Take the total cost of the Pass and divide by 10 train rides. Never take a train that cost much less than this amount. Buy a point-to-point ticket instead to save a travel day on the pass for a more expensive train ride. Go to www.railpass.com and look at all the links on how to use a pass and what it covers. Also www.raileurope.com (is not a site sponsor) has great information regarding passes and how to use them. Do your homework. http://www.raileurop…

First, Spain, France, Italy, and Benelux are connected so you can buy a railpass for those 4. Connected means the countries share a border or are connected by a ferry covered by the pass. It does not mean that you have to follow a route that goes through all the countries. You can use the pass in Netherlands, fly to Italy and use the pass there, fly to Spain and use the pass there, etc.

Second, your railpass does not have to cover every country you travel through. You can always buy a ticket for any part of your trip that isn’t covered by the railpass.

So if the train goes through a country not designated on my railpass to get from, let’s say, France to Italy, then I have to find a route that doesn’t pass through another country?

Also, the raileurope website doesn’t seem to be working for the past few days. I guess I’ll purchase my pass from railpass.com

Thanks for all the help by the way.

Yes, if you’re going to Italy from France you 1) have to choose a train that doesn’t go through Switzerland or 2) buy a ticket to cover the portion of the trip through Switzerland.

Why not support our sponsors and buy it here — under the “bookings” tab?

I did a trip with my sister and we flew between countries with ryanair at least where it was available. My cousin used eurorail. But within a country you just need to find their local carriers like Aegean air in greece or olympic which are usually the cheapest going between cities. I saw some amazing jaguar concept cars while in london last year.