If you purchase a France-Italy Rail pass is there an additional fee to reserve your seat?

Question

I plan on going to Bologna, Rome, Pisa, Florence, Venice, Grenoble, and Paris. I would like to get the first class saver pass. When do I encounter an additional fee? Just on the high speed trains? Do you get the pass and then get a ticket for the reservation? Is the rail pass a ticket? or just a bording pass with no guarantee of a seat? Should I get reservations while I'm still in the US?

Answer 1

The trips that you are making are very short.  For example, Florence to Rome on the Eurostar takes less than two hours and costs EUR 33.  The Eurostar trains are very nice and you wouldn't need to worry about first class (although if you really like throwing away your money you could pay the EUR 47 for first class).  Florence to Bologna is less than an hour on Eurostar and would cost EUR 15 (second class) or EUR 21 (first class).  Florence to Pisa would be FIVE EUROS in second class (or seven euros in first class).  

Think about the cost of your rail pass.  When you divide the total cost by the number of days you can travel, would the cost per day be less than thirty-three euros?  Less than fifteen?  Less than FIVE?  Rail passes are really only worth it for long trips (especially trips where you cross the border).  If you're only doing one or two long trips, you'd definitely be better off buying individual point-to-point tickets.

And yes, there would be an additional fee to reserve seats on high speed trains (intercity and Eurostrar, mainly).  The very slow interregional and regional trains (that stop in every three-hundred-person town along the way) don't even take reservations.  The rail pass IS just a boarding pass... any train with assigned seating will require that additional reservation.  Honestly, reservations usually only cost EUR 3 or so.  However, I really don't want you to just throw your money away... please think twice before buying a rail pass!

Answer 2

This link has a lot helpful information for you.

http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/rail_menu...