I second the Man in Seat 61 website!
Fantastic resource for train travel in Europe.

Good in depth information if you want to do your own planning and online purchasing, but can save you in finding the best booking options. There are several different ways in Italy and he has great explanations as to differences in booking sites, train types, seat maps, etc.
Last year I saved over $75 a first class ticket on a trip from Prague to Germany using a published recommendation that I found nowhere else.

Eurail was the way to go in the decades of the last century, not so much today with online options and dynamic pricing.