plane or train from paris to florence or rome
 

We will be traveling from Paris to Florence and Rome in Feb. We are debating whether to take the train or to fly. What is the standard weight restriction for the smaller European airlines. If anyone has flown on these flights any info would be great. Cost of extra luggage, flight itself, etc. I looked into the train from Paris to Florence and Paris to Rome on raileurope.com and it seemed very expensive over 400 euro. Will it be less expensive to just buy the tickets in Paris?
Thanks

Ryanair flies from Paris Beauvais to Rome Ciampino. EasyJet flies from Paris Orly to Rome Ciampino. It's cheaper and faster to get to Orly. Check ryanair.com and easyjet.com for the answers to your luggage questions.

Rail Europe's timetables are incomplete and their prices are inflated. See www.bahn.de for complete timetables for most of Europe. Was the 400 euro quote for night trains or for another time of day? If a night train, what kind of sleeping accomodations were shown for that price?

Buying tickets in Paris will be cheaper than buying them from Rail Europe, but not as cheap as booking online in advance. The cheapest way to book train tickets for either Paris-Florence or Paris-Rome is to go to sncf.com. You can book up to 90 days in advance. To get any available discount fares, book ASAP.

See my reply on your other thread.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34919326

I can't seem to be able to find a train from Paris to Rome (preferably overnight in a double sleeper) that will allow me to book online on either site. They both just seem very confusing to me.

Try using www.trenitalia.com
Click English, then international and enter your cities - Paris/Rome and dates. You will get several city/station options. When the list appears you will see that some can be bought online and some can't. Click for prices. To buy online, you must register, etc. Do a search for how to book on Trenitalia (it can be tricky at times)and for how to pick up tickets.

If you book Paris-Rome on trenitalia.com, you would have to pick up your tickets in Italy--which wouldn't work for you.

Book at sncf.com. No registration required and you can choose to pick up your tickets at a station in France.

Start here: www.sncf.com/indexe.htm. Click on "Information Schedule and Booking." Enter Paris, Rome, 1st class, a departure date (for a dummy booking I used 15 February), and a departure time of 19:00. The train you want leaves Paris Bercy at 19:00 and arrives at Roma Termini at 09:50. Click on "choose this outward journey." You'll be given a page that reviews your choices so far. Scroll to the botton and click on "Search now." The prices you will be shown are for a bunk in a four-person couchette. Click on "Options" to see other choices. Click on the pull-down menu and select "First Class Double" and gender. Click on "Confirm" and the prices will be re-calculated. If you're given more than one price, the cheaper one is a discount fare. Click on "choose this outward journey" for the fare you wish. You'll be shown your seat assignment and the total price. Click on "Confirm." Choose "Collect your ticket from a station or SNCF shop, with the reference number of your file and the bank card used for the payment." Enter your name, etc. in the fields at the bottom, and click on "Confirm." Enter your credid card information and then click on "Confirm and pay for your order."