My family is flying to rome to start a 10 day vacation. after a 3 day stay in rome, we will be driving to Sicily via a 2 day stop in Amalfi coast. Then we will stay in sicily for 4 days. We will by flying out of Catania to the US, via a 3 hour layover in Rome.

we have 2 options:
1. buy a multi-city plane ticket:
US-Rome, Catania-Rome-US.(assuming all luggage transfers will be handled for us)

2. buy a round trip ticket Us-Rome, and buy a one-way ticket form catania to rome. (requiring us to transfer our luggage on our own in rome on our way home).

Option 2 costs $200 less, but we are concerned that the 3 hours we have from arriving in rome until we are supposed to take off again from rome would not be enough time to get our luggage and then check in again?

I hope my question isn't too confusing,

thanks, skivt.

For the one-way ticket, you are ideally supposed to be in the check-in line 2 hours before the flight, and checked in no later than about 40 minutes before the flight (check the airline web site for exact information). If you are still in the check-in line at the deadline mark of 40 minutes before the second line, no matter how long you have been waiting, you are left stranded.

So if all goes well, you should be able to get to the check-in line for the second flight on time, but if there is any delay (flight, taxiing to gate, getting luggage, immigration lineups, and so forth), your second flight is in jeopardy. Someone recently posted about a similar strategy involving the CDG airport, and it turned out three hours was not enough.

3 hours <b>should</b> be enough, but things can happen. The real question is what if you miss the flight? Can you afford the consequence?

Since you're on two tickets, your Rome-US airline has no obligation to take you home, but usually they'll let you standby on their flights. That most likely means 24 hours later, and if that flight's full, another day.

You should consider one or more of the followings:

- flip your itinerary around
- fly back to Rome the night before
- investigate in travel insurance that has &quot;misconnect&quot; coverage. may not help you totally, but should give you more help in getting home

BTW, which airlines are the respective itineraries on?

Thank you all so much! We haven't made our final reservations yet, so its not too late to change our plans.

we had seen several options
1. USAir and Alitalia
2. Delta and Lufthansa
3. Delta and Alitalia

The flights from sicily are on air one or windjet, which I'm assuming are part of alitalia or lufthansa.

I think we'll just pay the extra $ and purchase one ticket rather than risk missing a flight. we could fly back a night early into rome, but the extra night in rome would cost as much as/more than buying the more expensive plane ticket.

Thank you for your help!

rkkwan was suggesting that you flip your itinerary--start with your flight to Rome, then proceed directly to Catania and your 4 days in Sicily, then 2 days Amalfi Coast, then finish up in Rome for 3 days. This incurs no additional Rome hotel costs, just the same ones you anticipated, and guarantees that you can make your flight home.