Hi all,

I'm taking my 77-year old mother, my wife, and my three children (8, 11, 14) to Europe for the Christmas holidays, and we are hoping to get from Salzburg to Rome a day or so after Christmas. I would like to take an overnight train for the majority of the journey. I know there is no direct night train, and expect to stage somewhere during the day to catch a direct night train from that city to Rome.

From what I've been able to find online, one option is to get to Munich and take the Munich-Rome night train. Would it make sense to catch this same train in Innsbruck instead of Munich?

I'm not sure what other options might make sense and am open to suggestions.

As for the Munich-Rome train, I've played with the Bahn.com website, and I'm unable to get all 6 of us on the same reservation. I would like to do that so we can get a 6-berth couchette for the trip down. The "more than 5 travelers" selection on the website doesn't work for some reason with three kids (I get some error about incorrect number of travelers as two kids count as one adult). It looks like I can book two separate family reservations (two kids with my wife and me; one kid with grandma), but I'm concerned we might end up in different sleeping compartments. I'm realize I'm too far out in time to book the date I want, but I'm hoping to understand the system so I can jump on the reservation as soon as the time window opens. Is there a trick to getting us all on the same reservation?

Do I need to call someone to make this reservation?

Any advice appreciated,

Austin FF