We are two adults with 2 teenagers plus 2 children taking a train from Barcelona to Italy, our destination is a House in the country near Florence,

, i would love some advise, either to take a train all the WAY to Florence or maybe to Génova or any convenient destination and drive from there to the House location.
Also where should we buy the tickets , from renfe?
Thank you, i am not an expert. In trains and would appreciate any sugestion.

Does it absolutely HAVE to be done by rail? Have you considered booking a budget flight? www.whichbudget.com or www.skyscanner.com

To do the <B>entire</B> route by rail will take probably a minimum of 20 hours and anywhere between 3-5 changes.

Unfortunately, the overnight service between Barcelona and Milan (where you could easily change for Florence) no longer operates.

This is an agonizingly long trip by train as described above. By plane, for example, Vueling flies direct Barcelona-Florence in 1 hour 35 minutes and as low as €65 pp.

Thank you Dukey and Greg. At first I thought of a budget airline , but Vueling reviews seem very bad specially we are all tall.
I thought a hotel train would do nicely, ..... We have taken a few times the train hotel Madrid Pais and it was very convenient waking up at the Gare d' Austerlitz. We have a problem we do not have that much time to drive,
Do you know a better budget airliner to get from Spain to Italy.?
Thank you again.

I'm not certain your "concerns" about Vueling are valid. I am also tall, have flown them a number of times, and on several-hour flights, and have never been disappointed.

If you go to those two sites I recommended you will see all the possible options. And don't discount the possibility of flying into Milan and taking the train to Florence from there.

Try looking at Easyjet.com/en on the route from Barcelona to Milan-Malpensa.

I would fly Easy Jet or Vueling as the "hotel" train hasn't existed on this route for several years. I don't think being tall matters that much on a flight under 2 hours.

Another option is the overnight ferry from Barcelona to either Livorno or Genoa (Livorno would be more convenient to Florence).

http://www.grimaldi-lines.com/en/

http://www.gnv.it/en.html

give the kids some excitement of an overnight ferry - kind of a cruise ship light - save on hotel costs - yup oit tis a long long way to Tipperary by rail - would be fine if you broke up the rail trip - say by staying in the French Riviera for a few days, etc. If looking into trains three great sites: www.seat61.com - good info on discounted tickets you could get from www.voyages-sncf.com (or competitor www.capitainetrain.com) and www.trenitalia.com for Italy; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com but I'm afraid trains that far will cost far more than the boat or flying.

Spanish AVE trains now go also from Barcelona to points in France as well a French TGVs - so for Spain check www.renfe.com - Spanish Railways system.

with discount airlines check out ALL the fees - preferential seating; reserved seating; baggage - Ryan Air's chief even wanted to put pay toilets on his planes until that got shot down with tons of bad publicity but you get the drift.

If dropping a car off in a counrty other than in which you rent it did not result in a steep drop-off fee I'd tell you to consider driving - much quicker than trains all told on that route I think.

The overnight ferry from Barcelona to Iatly is a good suggestion - a sea voyage with en suite cabin, restaurants and bar! far more of an experience than yet another flight. Try www.gnv.it or www.grimaldi-lines.com

By train, it's easy too, and an experience.

1) Take a TGV from Barcelona to Geneva from around €59, www.capitainetrain.com or www.loco2.com with print-at-home tickets. There's at least one good daily service with 1 easy change, although there are plans to run a direct TGV at some point.

2) Stay the night in Switzerland, then hop on a Geneva to Milan train from €22 booked at www.sbb.ch (Swiss railways).

3) Onward trains from Milan to Florence (from €19), Venice (from €9) or Rome (from €29) can be booked at www.trenitalia.com

RENFeE - Spanish Railways is now running direct AVE trains between Barcelona and Marseille too and from Barcelona to Lyon - the quickest way to Milan I believe is via Lyon - spend the night somewhere. so it is not just French TGVs but AVE trains run by the Spanish Railways too to pick from.

Thank you all, great suggestions, the ferry sounds exciting.

All good ideas, but for the record, I have flown Vueling as comfortably as any US airline ( except JetBlue, the Wonder Airline) and I am 6'3".

https://www.google.com/search?q=grim...=1600&bih=1075

You can see in these images of the Barcelona to Italy Grimaldi ferries that these are modern large ships - the larger the ship the less likely sea sickness and the Mediterranean is not like the Atlantic so usually smooth sailing I would think.

Just bookmarking as I have also been trying to find a good way from Barcelona to Italy. Great suggestions! I did notice that the ferries only seem to run from Barcelona to Livorno on Wednesdays...

there is also ferry service to Genoa and in summer these boats may run more often perhaps.

http://www.directferries.co.uk/ferry...itavecchia.htm

Lots of Spain to Italy boats running all days of the week it seems.