Need help on best route!

Hi, timetables for the next timetable year from the second sunday in Dezember are released in October/November. Some railway companies like Trenitalia in Italy will release the timetable for October 2023 in the Summer of 2023.

Most timetables will be similar like this year. You could look for october 2022 to have an idea. 

This makes only sense to do by train if you intend to also visit some spots en-route, and as they are all along the coast, it may mean the very same as that cruise has done already. If you only want to cover distance: flying will be much cheaper and quicker.

To get a rough idea of how it goes, simply use  the planner, cut it up in shorter segments, for same dates- 1day this yr (=makes same day of week). Or use bahn.com.

In my exp. cruisepax are mostly scared for any additonal changes other train-pax take for granted. And they tend to take an overload of luggage-not handy for changes. But the route follows the coast_ you have to change trains at LEAST in Marseille-Nice-Ventimiglia-and perhaps somewhere in IT. A night-stop is likely needed somewhere around the Nice area-or just over border in IT, like SanRemo

A railpass also makes no sense-that is for at least 4 traveldays on trains

As the previous poster says the route is basically follow the coast. 

I agree that flying is a good option but if you need to travel by rail here are a few thoughts:

The IR 4 day pass is currently 185 euro each and you would need to add reservation fees ( I am assuming you need accom by either route.

To do in 2 days would be a challenge involving late finishes and early starts. 3 days would look like:

Day 1 Barcelona to Marseilles .(7-8 hours several connections with varying costs for reservations) - Taxi from port to station about 20 euro (15 mins)

Day 2 Marseilles to Ventimiglia then Ventimiglia to Genoa (about 8 hours 1 or 2 changes)

Day 3 Genoa to Civitavecchia (if cruising) or on to Rome. (About 6 hours).

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the replies!  We will be purchasing a Global pass. Just having hard time with routes Barcelona to Rome, we don't mind staying a night or two in route. We will be taking a cruise from Rome on Oct 8th then returning to Rome and plan to go to Paris from there then back to Barcelona on Oct 23rd for cruise home. The route Barcelona to Rome is just driving me crazy trying to figure out the best way.

Hi when are you travelling in 2023 or this year 2022? 

In the first post you write 2023, the timetable for this is not released yet.

If you'd just want to go from Barcelona to your cruise from Roma, take the ferry. 

There is a daily connection from Barcelona to Civitavecchia. 

Booked in advance it's not expensive, you'd need no rail pass, you'd not need to do a break and you're directly there where your cruise starts.... hop off, hop on

..

Put simply the only route from Barcelona is Bcn - Marseilles - Nice -Monaco - Ventimiglia - Genoa then either Genoa - Milan - Rome or Genoa - Rome by coast.

There are no other practical routes - I am a cruiser and just done my route to Rome. 

Rome to Paris and back over a couple of weeks opens some interesting routes but there are only a few express routes out of Italy:

The reverse of the way in from BCN to Nice then TGV to Paris.

Rome - Milan and then into Switzerland then across from Basel or Strasbourg.

Or Rome - Bologna - Brenner Pass to Munich and then across to France.

All cross border expresses carry heavy reservation fees so read the guidance on the community if budget is a concern.