italy, flying to
 

what is the best city to fly into from San Fransisco to Italy? Would like to start North work south toward Rome.. but cost is a factor and I am looking for the cheapest way to get there and back. thanks

It really can vary. Try plugging in various cities such as Milan, Florence, Venice, even Rome etc into sites like www.kayak.com with SFO as origination point. Also try open-jaw or multi-city function (fly into Milan, leave from Rome) - most of the time it's no more expensive than same arrival/departure city. You should have a wide variey of results to choose from.

Since you say "north" I'd look at both Milan and Venice.

I've seen some cheaper flights into Bologna (BLQ) and sometimes Nice (NCE). You might try into either of those cities and out of Rome. I use itasoftware.com (you don't have to register just click log as guest) and select multi-city. On the inbound I select a random airport in central Italy and also the 300 mile radius option. For the outbound/return, just select Rome (FCO).

Whatever you choose go with LH not United and be sure you double check its not a code share flight, a LH flight but flown by United. You want to be on that LH plane. 110% superior service.

LH flight?

LH is the code for Lufthansa Airlines (German) debbiedenise.

From SF to Venice I have always flown on KLM (Booked through Northwest). A nonstop flight from SFO to Amsterdam which is a very user friendly airport and then taken the KLM City Chopper on to Venice. I don't know if that was the least expensive flight or not however but it has always been very convenient.

Tend to agree with Joanne. The last 3 trips we've taken to Europe (including Italy where we flew into Rome FCO and out of Florence FLR) have been on LH. Good prices, very good service, and decent plentiful food, + free drinks if that makes a difference to you. Only complaint is that their B747-400 and A340-300 don't have individual entertainment screens, but that's not a huge factor to us. From SFO you're likely to make one change, in FRA.

Sorry about that. LH is Lufthansa. As stated its overhead movies and they do for the most part fly through Frankfurt. If you can get a Munich flight so much the better less hassle in getting from international terminal to in Europe flights and the crowd is less. I have also flown to Amsterdam several times but never on from there due to cost. Amsterdam is user friendly airport IMHO. So you have lots of choices.

debbiedenise

If you decide for Lufthansa (LH) then try to get the Munich (MUC) flights LH459/LH458 from/to San Francisco SFO, which are operated by A340-600 with individual screens in economy, while the B747-400 LH455/LH454 to/from Frankfurt do not have.
Then from Munich you can connect still with LH to plenty of italian cities like Turin, Genua, Milan, Venice, Bologna, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Naples.
The advise to fly in to a city and out from another one is a wonderful idea !

You may have other options from San Francisco with British Airways, AirFrance or KLM if you stick to an european carriers.
Free wine, beer, spirits and alcoholics in economy is the standard among the major EU airlines.