best way to travel between barcelona, france and italy by train for students

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Is this a question or a statement?

What's your criteria for best?
Most flexible?
Cheapest?
Fastest?
Most use of overnight trains?

The best way for a student or non-student is to check schedules beforehand. I like to use www.bahn.de for schedules all over Europe, but you can also use the national RR website for each country.

Compare point-to-point ticket prices vs a pass. Depending on the itinerary, advance purchase discounts, and required seat reservations (in Italy) it may be cheapest to buy point-to-point tickets.

cheapest and fastest from barcelona to france ( nice ) and onto Florence .. is railpass the way to go or not >
thanks

looking for the best way to purchase train tickets for a trip from barcelona to south of france onto italy

If you are not stopping in France, take the overnight ferry from Barcelona to Italy and put the students in cabins of four. You will be able to get a group discount.

Grimaldi runs between Barcelona and Livorno (near Pisa/Florence) or Civtavecchia (Rome's port).
http://www.grimaldi-lines.com/england/index.jsp?lan=EN

Grand Navi runs between Barcelona and Genoa.
http://www3.gnv.it/en/gnv-spagna/gnv...1f6af6b02d24bf

'looking for the best way to purchase train tickets for a trip from barcelona to south of france onto italy' and 'is railpass the way to go or not '

I will repeat what J62 has advised already 'Compare point-to-point ticket prices vs a pass. Depending on the itinerary, advance purchase discounts, and required seat reservations (in Italy) it may be cheapest to buy point-to-point tickets.'

And reinforce - you are only going to know if you do a maths comparison.