First Trip from Boston to Italy

Old Feb 21st, 2017, 05:26 AM
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First Trip from Boston to Italy

Planning our own trip on a budget. Leaving Logan mid June with family (artist spouse, 2 20yr old + sons, 14yr daughter) and spending 14 days.
Looking for tips from those who have done this before:
-Best/worst airline
-?Fly into Rome
- Want to visit Rome/Florence/Venice
-Is it unrealistic to rent a villa
-Any other tips from your experience
Thank you
magicom is offline  
Old Feb 21st, 2017, 05:36 AM
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Can't you look at the Boston Logan website and see what airlines, if any, fly direct to Rome/
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Old Feb 21st, 2017, 05:43 AM
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Book your tickets to fly into Venice and fly home from Rome. Flying into Venice is easy, flying out of Venice (especially transatlantic) is not.

Which airline? Whichever has the fare you can afford since you're on a budget.

If you're really looking to save big, you may be in luck since you're in Boston, where really really cheap flights to Europe are available with Norwegian and Iceland Air and Wow airlines. I've flown Norwegian, it is fine. Have yet to fly Wow, which is "the other" Icelandic airline - I have flown Iceland Air and it is fine, too.

Those airlines have rockbottom fares and you pay on top of that fare for anything you choose among the extras like bags - both carry-on and checked, and food if you need it, and seat assignments if you need them. So you build up the fare that suits you. If you travel light, it's cheaper, and if you can sit apart for a few hours, it's even cheaper still (you should sleep anyway because you'll miss out on a night's sleep with the telescoping time due to the time difference).

And, of course, you won't fly nonstop from Boston to Venice on those budget airlines - Wow and Iceland Air both make a stop in Iceland with a switch of planes, and for Venice there will be one more switch at least.

Norwegian has many flight go first to Oslo, others go to other European hubs, and you find connecting flights on other airlines at www.skyscanner.net and www.whichbudget.com - just leave enough time for the connection in case your transatlantic flight is not on time. The connecting airline owes you no favors if you're late.

You really have to do your homework, work hard to ferret out a fare you can afford that gets you there within what for you are reasonable circumstances. Everybody has different likes and dislikes and tolerances - discuss with your party what yours are so nobody grumbles when you get going.

Most experienced flyers will tell you that it is best to book with an airline directly, so when something goes wrong, they can't say "don't talk to us, you didn't buy the ticket from us".

To search for fares, use www.kayak.com (but don't automatically book from where that site leads you - some of those third-party sellers may not be available on the phone from an airport if something goes wrong), and www.itasoftware.com (click on Airfares), and Google Flights (which now owns ITA that may go away soon).

Also subscribe to Airfarewatchdog for emails about fares on routes that you can specify at www.airfarewatchdog.com. You'll get lots of emails that don't pertain to your exact dates - delete them, and when a good one comes along, you'll be glad to know.
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Old Feb 21st, 2017, 05:46 AM
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You can book a villa, but June is not so far away and many will be booked. More to the point where would you have it as none of the cities is really commutable to the others.
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Old Feb 21st, 2017, 05:55 AM
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- Want to visit Rome/Florence/Venice
-Is it unrealistic to rent a villa>>

michel has addressed the flying question, so i'll try to help with accommodation.

with 14 days, and 3 places to visit, all cities, renting a villa isn't really realistic especially if you intend to spend more or less equal amounts of time in each city when it would make sense to stay in hotels in each place rather than renting apartments for relatively short periods of time.

However, you could fit it in if you did something like this:

4 nights Venice, 7 nights villa in Tuscany near to Florence, 3 nights in Rome.

I would rent a villa with a pool reasonably close to a town with a train line into Florence if you want to spend some of your time there. You'd need to rent a car in Venice [which you would prebook to pick it up from the Piazzale Roma as you leave] and return it somewhere on a train line into Rome [Orvieto used to be a favourite place but I read somewhere that that might not be possible now].
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Old Feb 21st, 2017, 05:59 AM
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Fellow Massachusetts person here. Best bets by far are Iceland Air and Aer Lingus. Both will require a stop over (Rekjavik or Dublin) but both airports are small and the transfers painless. I go to Europe at least once (often twice) a year and almost always fly those two). They are no frills (don't even get a meal on Iceland) but they do the job for less than most others. Just check which one has the best schedules for into or out of Venice and Rome. Usually best to do Venice first (great place to get over jet lag) and the times usually work out best.

There are some direct flights from Logan to Italy but it will cost you. And you are buying 5 tickets so it will REALLY cost you. A painless couple hours in Rekjavik or Dublin (enough time for a coffee and croissant) will save you thousands on 5 tickets.

14 days is great for those three cities. Don't add anywhere else (you will be tempted). You can do day trips from all of them if time and interest allow, but have just those three bases. Easy train from Venice to Florence and Florence to Rome.

What exactly is your definition of a villa? You can rent apartments in all those cities and that might make sense for five people. I usually prefer hotels for ease of checking in, someone to ask if you have questions, etc. You will be able to find triple rooms easily, and some quads, but doubt you'll find any hotel rooms for 5 people so you are looking at least two rooms. Booking.com is the way to go. Click on their maps to select the area of each town you want and click on hotels to see the cost. The list hotels as well on their site.
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Old Feb 21st, 2017, 06:09 AM
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I agree about flying into Venice and home from Rome.

>>>14 days>>4 nights Venice, 7 nights villa in Tuscany near to Florence, 3 nights in Rome.
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Old Feb 21st, 2017, 06:31 AM
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That isn't enough for Rome as it would only give you 2 sightseeing days.>>

I agree kyb, but I've allowed for jet lag on arrival in Venice. one could easily reverse the amounts of time in Venice and Rome, but then they wouldn't, IMHO, have long enough in Venice. As you say, 3 nights is nothing like long enough in Rome, but 4 nights [3 whole days] is nothing like long enough either so in either case, the OP would not have long enough even to see the major sights.

All travel is a compromise, after all.
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Old Feb 21st, 2017, 06:35 AM
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When you say you want to rent a villa in Italy I don't think you want a villa with 10 beds and a big garden. No? You want an apartment in a villa with a nice view of the country and nice air. Birds.

You can go to Fiesole or Settignano, or maybe even the hills of Florence across the river, the Oltrarno, to find a nice apartment in a villa with a big garden that you share with other families. Everybody has a nice big apartment with a beautiful view and a terrace with a table to eat. When you want to go to Florence, you take the bus or taxi. It is possible to walk.

There are many villas close to Firenze but it is expensive if you pay to have one big villa without neighbours. It is better to share. It is not possible to find them in Rome or Venice because the villas are too far to go to the city to see famous things every day. But in Florence, the villas to rent are not far and it is easy if you want to go to Uffizi, Duomo, the Market, famous things.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2017, 12:28 AM
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I've flown into Rome and out of Venice (from Logan) and will do it again in April. Not sure why others say flying out of Venice is a pain. I didn't find it to be worse than anywhere else.

carolsc
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Old Feb 22nd, 2017, 02:10 AM
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What carol said. I've flown out of V several times and don't get why people advise against it.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2017, 03:00 AM
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Usually when flying from Venice you have to connect somewhere in Europe. To make the connection, that means Venice flights typically leave very early. I'm not aware Boston has a non-stop VCE/BOS as you would be able to get out of FCO. With Boston being so far east (shorter transatlantic flight) very early might not be as much of an issue as it is for someone living further west in the US.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2017, 06:13 AM
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>"I've flown out of V several times and don't get why people advise against it."<

There are very few flights from VCE to the US, if any, that are both leaving at comfortable times and cheap. Getting to the airport is not as easy as in cities where a taxi stop or metro stop is at the corner from your lodgings.

Since there are no nonstops, even for folks with fat wallets, from VCE to the BOS (there is a nonstop Delta/AF flight to JFK but it will cost you), you have to finesse getting to a European hub in time for a transatlantic connection, and that usually means getting going at an ungodly hour, schlepping your stuff through Venice's alleys and over bridges.

Never say never, but if you bring up all flights VCE to BOS on ITA matrix, it quickly becomes clear.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2017, 02:32 PM
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Aer Lingus has flights that depart VCE at 11:55, change in Dublin and get into BOS at 6:30 pm. And they are cheap.
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Old Feb 22nd, 2017, 04:05 PM
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Good catch. Not daily, or sold out already for some days in June - OP better act quickly if this appeals.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2017, 03:29 AM
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My flight leaves in the afternoon from Venice to PHL then we fly to BOS.
(When I booked it last summer, we flew directly to BOS but since then AA changed the destination to PHL. I was not happy but what can you do.)

carolsc
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