Looking for a route to Bologna from LA. At first I was planning on flying Alitalia to Rome, non-stop, staying in Rome a few days and taking the train to Bologna.

However, that wound-up being a lot more expensive than I thought.

So now I am thinking--LA to Paris for a few days, Paris to Milan and grab the train to Bologna.

Any thoughts or other suggestions? I have about 10 days on the ground --beginning of April.

There are many airlines that fly LA to Bologna with just one stop. If you want to include another city besides Bologna on this trip, I would:

Call Alitalia and ask if you can stay in Paris or Rome on route from your flight from LA to Bologna.

Call Air France and ask if you can stay in Paris on route from your flight from LA to Bologna.

Call KLM and ask if you can stay in Amsterdam on route from your flight from LA to Bologna.

Call United and ask if you can stay in Munich or Frankfurt on route from your flight from LA to Bologna.

Try searching flights on kayak.com using the "Muti-City" tool.

Another great way to search flights using the Muti-City tool is with http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm.

Use ITA software above.

Did you price out flying to Bologna via Rome? (Meaning, switching planes in FCO and arriving in Bologna the same day.) Sometimes it is cheaper than flying to Rome and then taking a train to Bologna.

You might also look into flying into Florence, Milan or Venice and proceeding from there to Bologna.

For you return flight, try to fly out of Rome non-stop. If you can't do that, and need to fly to another country to catch a transatlantic flight, make sure there is more than one plane leaving in the morning from Italy that gets to that other country's airport in time to catch the last transatlantic flight. More than once I have seen crack-of-dawn flights out of Italy to other airports in Europe get cancelled because the foreign carrier doesn't have a plane available at the airport at the crack of dawn -- but the next flight leaving doesn't arrive in time to make the last transatlantic flight.

Forli is considered a secondary airport for Bologna, which means that there must be some public transportation between the two. They are about 70 km. apart. Cheap flights between CDG and Forli are available; Forli was my transfer point from Palermo to Paris.

http://www.flylc.com/directall-en.asp

We really liked our SFO - AMS - Bologna trip. Leaves SF in the afternoon, gets to Amsterdam mid-day, and to Bologna late afternoon. Check and see if there's a similar flight from LA.

Forgot to say it was KLM.