1st class costs about 1 1/2 times 2nd class. In trains where there are compartments there are 8 seats in 2nd class and 6 seats in 1st class in the same size compartment. While few trains have compartments any more, the space ratio pretty much holds true for any type of seating configuration. 1st class is less crowded because few Europeans spring for the extra cost. Most folks in 1st class are tourists with adult railpasses, retirees and other senior citizens who get special rates making 1st class about the same price as 2nd class and some business types. I’ve traveled by train in all the countries you list except Spain and Portugal and would not spring for 1st class in any of them.
There’s generally information on the individual national rail company websites. The links to the ticket pages are in this post: http://www.eurotrip…. You’ll have to poke around the sites (some of which don’t have much information in English) to find out. There’s a huge variation from train to train. If you’re talking about amenities like bar cars, conveyance of bicycles, sleeping cars, you can usually figure it out by clicking on the specific train (regardless of what country you’re traveling in )on the German national rail company website: http://reiseauskunft…
IMO, a flexi-pass is almost always a better deal than a consecutive day pass anyway.
Not sure whether “hit or miss” or “not all that prevalent is the better answer. The fancier name trains are more likely to have them and there are some train that advertise them, but often only in 1st class. Look up information about the specific “name” trains (e.g. TGV in France, EurostarItalia in Italy, Thalys in France and Benelux) on the individual national rail company websites.
Not sure how much money this will actually save since the regular fares are heavily based on distance. A Rome to Florence ticket plus a a Florence to Zurich ticket will not be much more expensive than a Rome to Zurich ticket. Also, you usually have to pay full price for the ticket to do this and you have to buy 2 separate reservations. The special prices and cheap tickets (where you can beat using a railpass) are advance-purchase tickets for a specific train (a specific date, train number and time) and don’t allow changes and refunds (or stopovers). Most full fare tickets are “good” for at least 48 hours after you start the journey, some for as long as 60 days. I have never done this. Based on how tickets are validated (self-validated at a machine on the platform or by the conductor on the train) I think you might have a problem convincing the conductor your ticket was valid on the second leg — be sure to tell the conductor who first checks and punches your ticket what you intend to do.
A rail day is midnight to midnight. Your pass has a series of boxes — 15 if you purchased a 15 day flexi-pass. You mark the date (European format, so July 5 is 5/7, not 7/5) in a box before you board your first train that day. You can take as many trains as you like during that 24 hour period and it counts as one day — works great for things like spending the day in Salzburg on your way from Munich to Vienna. Most overnight trains only count as one day because of the special “7 PM rule.” If a train leaves after 7:00 PM and arrives after midnight it’s only counts as one day, arrival day, on your pass. In your example you would end up using 2 days as you would have already used departure day to take the train from Rome to Florence before embarking on the overnight train to Zurich, which would count as the next day.

Again, sorry about just now noticing. This reply will really help me, and I will be sure to check out the link posted regarding the amenities for the trains!

It is good to know you wouldn’t spring for 1st class on the trains, since that is something we were considering doing (the 1-month Global saver 1st class fare is around $1K, whereas the Youth 2nd class 1 month Global is around $750…we were considering spending the extra $250).

The 1 month global 1st class pass is only like $25 more than the 15-days in 2 months, and that seems worth it to not have to worry about the hassle of making notes of how many days we’ve used.

Same with the Youth passes, the flexi-pass is only $15 less…

Thanks again!

Cheers,
Cameron

20 cities in 36 days will be uncomfortably rushed. 12 to 14 cities would be more reasonable.