Many national rail company websites will not let you buy just a reservation, and you’ve noticed the inflated prices from sites like Rail Europe. In many cases you’ll be fine buying a couple of days in advance, but trains to/from Pamplona can sell out fast. If I were you I would book Barcelona to Pamplona as soon as you arrive in Lille if you can’t reserve online beforehand (and Lille to Barcelona while you’re there too).

All that said, you can buy reservations for Italian trains here: http://www.italiarai… Looking at the Spanish site, I think you might be able to buy just a reservation, but it looks like you have to do it in Spanish and I can’t get it to work at the moment. I’ll see if I can figure it out.

So you don’t have to get the reservation at the actual station you’re leaving from?

You can buy reservations for just about any train in Europe at most major train stations. If you’re sure of your plans, I’d buy the Rome-Milan and Milan-Paris ones when you buy Berlin-Rome in Berlin. The lines to buy “just a reservation” can be long in Italy. Check schedules first as you may be able to avoid buying a reservation for Rome-Milan by taking a slightly slower local train. However, many morning and evening trains in Italy require reservations and a trip in the middle of the day can mess up the entire day for sight-seeing.

I’m pretty set for the itinerary already so I can probably just get them when i get to Lille.

Thanks for all the help guys.

The “slightest lower” local train that doesn’t require reservation in this route takes, at least, 6h10 to reach Rome, whereas the fast trains take 2h55 to 3h30 (depending on how many intermediate stops they make). In fact, the lower local train (requiring change at Parma or Bologna) takes double the time. I’d not go for it at all.