best airport to fly into?
 

My final destination is Florence, and I was wondering which airport would be the best/easiest/most reliable to fly into. Is it more of a hassle to fly into Rome and take the train than fly into Florence and take a cab? (I will not be renting a car.) Any advice appreciated.

Does that mean you'll be stopping somewhere before Florence? When are you going? Will you stay in Florence? How long will you be there? From your address, I suspect you may fly from Boston. Alitalia has Boston direct to Milan and Boston to New York to Rome. <BR>Florence is a bit closer to Rome by train, so it depends on your time schedule and aversion, or not, to connecting flights. The train station in Florence is only a short walk to the "downtown" and "sights".

thanks for replying johnb. i am actually flying from los angeles to florence. i will be staying in florence and then visting venice and possibly rome over three weeks. i don't mind making a connecting flight. i was debating whether it would be a better idea to fly to europe and then make a connection in paris in order to fly into florence or to just fly to rome and then take the train. i hear that the florence airport is small and unreliable, but i wonder if it will be inconvenient taking a train to florence with baggage (i will be hauling around a wedding dress!). i was wondering what other options are out there. has anyone flown to pisa? how do you get to florence from there?

Patti - we flew from Boston to Florence last year, connecting in Paris on Air France. Florence is a very, very small airport, and the planes are of corresponding size. It was originally built as a civil avaition airport. If you don't want to go to Florence, and don't mind connecting flights, look at flying into either Pisa or Bologna, both closer to Florence than Rome.

For LAX to Florence, in addition to Air France via Paris, there are also Lufthansa via Frankfurt and Alitalia via Milan. Those three seem to be the most convenient at present, unless of course you decide not to go straight to Florence.