first time interrailing

There are direct day and night trains (with sleeper and couchette carriages) from Sicily (Siracusa / Catania and Palermo) to Roma (the whole train goes by ferry). There’s also a direct night train to Milano.

Roma to Firenze and Firenze to Milano has frequent high speed services.

There’s a direct train from Milano to Paris in the afternoon, but because of a landslide there’s a bus replacement in between (but it’s still shown as direct connection). It’s also possible to go via Genf (Switzerland) to Paris, but there is a bus replacement in summer, too (on the italian part of the trip). But it’s possible to go there earlier in the morning. It’s also possible to go entirely by train via Lugano (Switzerland) (takes about 10h).

Paris to London has frequent Eurostar services.

In general, all long distance trains on this route do require a mandatory reservation.

Timetables for summer aren’t published yet, but you may check a current date to get an idea how the timetable will look like.

Thank you. We are wanting to go from Italy to Switzerland and then Switzerland to Paris. Is that possible? Thank you so much for your help. 

Of course this is possible. There are frequent connections.

Recommended: Bernina railway (from Milano via Tirano to St. Moritz / Chur) - in summer with open cabrio carriages on some trains, a beautiful journey.

From Zürich, there are direct high speed trains to Paris (not recommended; high passholder supplement). Go by regional train from Basel to Mulhouse and from there by TGV to Paris or via Genf (depending on where you’d like to go in Switzerland).

How long in advance can you start booking the trip. I want to ensure I can book as soon as but I am unable to do so at the minute.

Sorry for all the questions :)

Totally agree with the Hektor’s comment.

Here is a helpful guide on seat reservations : https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

I’ll add that the best way to enter Switzerland is the Bernina Railway : rather slow but truly stunning all year round. In summer there are open-air carriages attached to some regular trains for a fun experience : https://tickets.rhb.ch/en/pages/open-panoramic-cars

The Bernina Express has 36 CHF mandatory reservations on the panorama carriages but I’d recommend to avoid them in the first place anyway : always full and loud. For a better experience travel on the regular carriages at the front (pull-down windows!) or on the hourly regional trains.

More here : https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/bernina-express.htm

Note that Paris is hosting the Olympics so everything will be more expensive, there will be crowds and extra security measures too. You could avoid the city by taking a Strasbourg - Lille TGV or also possible to spend a few hours there for lunch.

Questions welcome. It’s a cool route from the train-ferry crossing to the beautiful Alps. :)

Eurostar is already available now. French trains will be released on 7th March and Italian trains around April basically.

Don’t worry, trains never sell out months in advance.