Best and Worst: Long Distance Trains

BEST: tie between Eurostar Italia AV (Italy) and Thalys (France)
Big black leather recliner couches, and speeds well over 200km/h. Milan to Rome in 4 hours. Rome to Venice in 4 hours.

The french Thalys train is also fantastic - serving a glass of wine at 300km/h impresses me greatly. Just not quite as luxurious as the Italian one. Better service from the staff makes up for the Italian comfort.

WORST: Egypt
That train from Cairo to Aswan is rotten. But it's pretty much a third world country, so it's about what you expect.

Another notably bad train was an overnighter we took from Venice to Budapest. 13 hours stopping every half hour, 4 passport checks, a ridiculous Italian conductor was missed his life calling as a villain in an opera and the most uncomfortable seats. That's what we get for taking seats and not the sleeper. But the reservation fee for the sleeper alone was more expensive than a hotel room, which defeated the purpose of taking an overnight train.