Planning a trip to Italy for the first time with my wife this summer We are leaving from Boston and wondering at what time in the summer would we find the cheapest flights, what city we should fly into and how much is a fair price to pay? Any suggestions on what airlines to fly from Boston. Thanks!

The only non-stop flight from Boston to Italy is BOS-MXP (Milan Malpensa) on Alitalia. To other Italian cities (including Rome), require one connection. You can connect on this side of the Atlantic, at JFK or Newark (Chicago, Atlanta, etc will add siginificantly to travel times); or you can connect in Europe. London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, etc...

From New York/Newark, there are non-stops into Milan and Rome on multiple airlines. Delta also flies JFK-Venice. The other Italian cities with non-stop service in the US are Naples, Bologna and Palermo on Eurofly from JKF, which operate in the summer.

If you want to arrive in other Italian ctieis, then you have to connect in Europe.

The highest fare will be July and August, where it will be over $1,000. June and September will be a little cheaper - perhaps $900. May, perhaps <$900.

Myself if I have to do a connection I like British Airways for the Boston-Rome flights. I'm used to connecting thru LHR so perhaps I'm just comfortable with that connection even *if* other connections are easier or better.

When Alitalia had direct flights in the off-season I took them only for that reason. But now they connect thru Milan.

I didn't shop around and just booked thru BA's website a Boston-Rome leaving April 26, it was $884. Regards, Walter

Don't know how close you are to Providence (RI) so this may not be worth your while to look in to but in my research it seems like flights out of there are cheaper than out of Boston. The airport in Providence (PVD) is a lot calmer than Logan. Flights to Italy aren't direct though.

I myself would go out of JFK nonstop on Delta to Venice, Milan or Rome and then leave out of one of those cities coming back to save some money.Or you could leave out of Boston to Milan and then Delta back nonstop to JFK from Rome and then Boston?The best time to go that is cheaper and less congested is usually before the summer months(March-April).Don't forget that it is extremely warm in Rome in the latter part of the summer.

We took Delta Boston-NYC-Venice and it was great. Delta has its own terminal so you don't have to dash a long distance in NYC, you can just hang out in a nice commons area. The Boston/Venice price was THE SAME as the NYC/Venice price -- the extra leg was free.

If you change planes in Europe (and fly in the evening, which is typical), note that the change will likely be some gawd-awful time (like 4am) according to your body clock. A drawback but you'll recover.

Consider an open-jaw flight, where you fly into, say, Rome and out of, say Venice. They don't usually cost extra.

alitalia goes direct to milan and rome from logan in boston

We are flying with Alitalia direct, NO connection, from Boston 5:45 pm to Rome and returning from Venice (stop in Rome for 30 or so min)in October and I payed 1500.00 for two of us. I spoke with the Alitalia rep and he said that fares go down "after February". It wasn't worth the chance for us, as it is our honeymoon.

In a good year, there is typically no such ting as "cheap flights" during the summer.

This year, fares and flights to Europe are quite pricey and we haven't seen the bargains in November, January, February, as in years past...necessarily.

I would recommend starting with 1800flyeurope.com, then, sabre, kayak and mobissimo, along with all the other usual.

It is actually quite late to be shopping air fares to Italy for this summer.

You're going to have to shop like the dickens forthwith to determine the going prices, so you'll be able to recognize a "fair price" when one comes up, then book immediately.

The international terminal at Logan is not the headache it used to be. And, it's worth considerably "extra" to us not to have to connect at JFK or Heathrow.