Thanks! I'll try this tomorrow.

Keep your eye on Alitalia.
In April of last year we found a non-stop round trip flight from Boston to Rome for $399.00 and that included taxes

Wow! That's worth waiting for!

The KEY worsds in Bettina's post are "April of last year"

Overall airfares are up. If you put your hopes on that airfare you probably won't be going. We aren't seeing them that low this year. I have seem some reports of $600 airfares, but.... that's rare too.

A couple of years ago we found the best deal through European Destinations for airfare, Paris hotel and 2 week car rental cheaper than we could organize oureselves. It was one of those "customize your own" deals, and having always been a do-it-yourselfer, I was a bit dubious.

We had a wonderful time. All the arrangements were just as promised to my relief. The agent was most helpful with the up-front planning/information and checked back immediately after every new twist & turn as we refined our plans. Maybe they or another company can find something more reasonable for you.

We usually travel Sept-Oct for our vacation, and it still seems a tad early for any early-bird specials; I think we generally buy March or later for fall. With all the economic woes resulting in Airlines consolidating flights, I don't know what will be available as the year goes on, especially for a group of eight....I always do the best I can to research, but once I've decided and bought, I don't look back and beat myself up about bargains I shoulda'/coulda' had.

So right! Someone earlier had posted that the problem might be that we are trying to buy inexpensive tickets which usually show up as one or two seats when we need 11. I will see what your agency could do for us but maybe I should wait another month before approaching them.