5 day Eurail worth it for Italy?
 

We're looking at trenitalia and are right on the edge for whether a 5 day rail pass would save us any money as a family of six (one under 6 years old) for a total of the following trips:
Palermo-Venice; Venice-Lucca, Lucca-LaSpezia (and return); and Lucca-Rome. Individual tickets add up to approximately $1200, without reservation supplements. The passes cost $900-$1000, so the question is how much the supplements for reservations would add to that.

Anyone got a better handle on the supplement situation? Thanks!

Meridiana flies non-stop from Palermo to Venice for as low as 18 euros per person (plus taxes & baggage fees), 90min total flight time. A train will take you 15-20 hrs with one to 2 stops.

My recommendation is to fly from Sicily to Venice, then buy point to point tickets for the rest of your route.

You pay the supplement with the rail pass. If you buy tickets through trenitalia the seat supplement is included in the price. You should check for the familia discount on trenitalia. It's 20% off adults and 50% off kids up to 5 in your party. A rail pass usually is never a good idea in Italy. I also suggest flying from Palermo to Venice. Be careful of luggage allowances as they can be very strict.

I'll definitely check out the flight. . . I actually had nightmares about sleeping on a train with the kids overnight this morning.

Flight booked; additional night in hotel in Venice booked. . .I'm not having overnight train nightmares any more. Thanks so much for the flight suggestions.

>>>Individual tickets add up to approximately $1200, without reservation supplements.<<<

Individual tickets purchased from Trenitalia include the seat so there is no extra supplement.

As for the Familia offer on Trenitlia, it's supposed to be for 3-5 people traveling together. Since there are 6 of you, you spouse can book 3 tickets with adults and one child under 12 while you book the other 3 tickets (assuming you have two children under 12).

It also may be that you need to book a few of your tickets separately. The trains to Lucca will likely be old R trains that don't allow seat reservations or have class distinction so the choice of discounts may not show on Trenitlia because you would be booking a slow train (Florence/Lucca) and a fast train (Venice/Florence). Same thing for your Lucca/Rome connection. Lucca/La Spezia will be mostly old R trains without discounts or seat reservations and will require a train change somewhere, but can be bought as cheap as 5€ one way.

FAMILIA OFFER
Offer intended for journeys of family groups of 3-5 persons composed of at least 1 adult and 1 child of under 12 years. It includes the ticket booking (free) and provides the following discounts:
50% (30% for Couchette and Wagon Lits) for children under 12
20% for the other persons
Net of the discount, the minimum price is at least 10 euro for each passenger aged over 12, subject to the minimum fares for the train used.
The offer has limited seats availability, the numbers of which vary depending on the day, train and class.
Trains you can use this solution on:
AV, AV Fast, ES*, ES* Fast, ES* City, IC, ICN, Express, couchettes and WL. The Familia offer cannot be used for journeys on the Excelsior and Excelsior E4 carriages, or for single journeys on the regional trains. The discount extends to the Regional trains too only for journey solutions that allow the use of Regional trains connecting with trains for which the offer is valid.

Be sure to pay attention to any luggage restrictions on Meridiana as the budget airlines make a lot of their money on overweight luggage charges.