Best train travel options through Europe?

I'm planning a 6-week trip to Europe starting in England and ending up in Italy. I want to visit a lot of the countries in between either to major cities or small towns. I'm wanting to know what the cheapest and best deal is for train travel. Should I get a railpass, a eurailpass, or buy point to point tickets? I'm also not sure of how many days I plan on traveling around or how many days that are going to be required to do that much traveling. I don't and probably won't have plans set in stone as I plan on going wherever whenever I feel like it. I'm 23 so I fall within the cheaper price range. Please give me your suggestions.
im looking specifically for train travel...not plane travel even if its cheaper

I've just spent a day on line addressing this question. You'll find that you'll have to have a separate pass with BritRail since the UK is not included in any of the other passes through Eurorail. Good Luck and Bon Voyage.

Taking the train in Europe can be quite expensive. I suggest you take the plane. There are many low cost airlines in Europe, such as Ryanair, which take you all over Europe for very little money. Although you may see more when you take the train, taking the plane allows you to spend more time in the cities.

It's hard to say what would be the better choice--point to point will probably end up being more expensive than a eurail, although without knowing how much you want to move around, I'm not sure which eurail pass you should get. If you want to visit a lot of places within that six weeks, you'll probably be moving every couple of days, so an unlimited might be useful, even if it's not the cheapest option... I did virtually the same trip in 10 weeks, and DEFINITELY needed the unlimited. Do you know if you're going to be going in a more-or-less straight line or meandering a bit? Probably not... You'll need two passes, regardless, one BritRail and one Eurail (although if you're only doing, say London and environs, you can get by with point-to-point, if you're doing more than a couple trips, or going to other parts of the UK I would get a pass).

Check out the Thorn Tree Forum on lonely planet-you might be able to find others with better advice-my trip was fairly tightly planned.