First off- this may be a bit of a 'bouncing around' post. Sorry! Trying to keep it clear...
I'm planning a trip for Spring 2022 Italy and France. So far, I have booked:
A) Flight into Rome and out of Paris
B) 3 nights in Rome and the following 4 nights in Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore).
This leaves 8 nights before my flight home.
I planned to get from Rome to Riomaggiore by train, via Florence, but this isn't booked yet.
I had thought after check out in the CT that I would go to Milan on an early bus or train, spend the day, and take a night/sleeper train from Milan to Paris, which I would then make my base, and do day trips here and there. I have been to Paris before, as well as Marseille and Nice. LOVE all three - want to see more of France, but also want to have a home base, to feel less nomadic.
I've found plenty of advice to take the Thello train for this. However, I also saw somewhere credible (of course...I can't find it again to quote here... it was on the Thello or Eurail website or something like that...), it looks like the Thello Paris-Milan/Venice is discontinued. Is this true? Are there any other sleeper train options Milan to Paris? I would really like to be able to do a few hours/day in Milan, but am completely open minded.
As a follow up question - I had thought it may be worth it to get the Eurail global 10 day pass. I believe it's good for 10 random days within a one or two month time period. Is this a better plan, to get me to my base camps, and use for the day trips from Paris, allowing me to do them solo rather than booking viator, or some such tour company?
Appreciate all friendly pieces of advice and responses!