Hi all,
In the process of planning a trip to Italy in the fall, I was wondering - with bookending our trip with the Amalfi Coast and Milan/Venice which are the best cities to fly in and out of . We will be flying from Los Angeles .
Thanks in advance for all the help .

The longer you wait to go to Venice in the fall the more chances you have of local flooding, chilly nights, rain, so I would go there first. But if your whole trip doens't start until-mid November, then a lot of little stores and restaurants in the Amalfi start to close down after the middle of November, and it's bit chilly to eat outdoors at night etc., so then I would go there first if you aren't beginning your trip until the last half of fall.

Thanks Frencharmoire- we are thinking end of September- first two weeks of October and I was thinking of flying into Milan ( we would like to visit the lakes too) from LA and then heading to Venice and make our way down to Rome so that we can fly out of Rome . Should we expect good weather in October ?

I have read that both October and November are the rainiest months for Italy, but I have experinced sunshine for long stretches during both moths. If the sun is shining it can actually be hot, at least in October. But I think you need to pack at least one pair of waterproof shoes in case it does rain.

>>> Should we expect good weather in October ?

Do you know you can easily find historical data online going back many years? For example,

https://www.wunderground.com/history...eqdb.wmo=16066

Unless your trip extends over a month, a week or two difference in visiting a particular region does not matter unless you can PRECISELY predict weather one week over other. What is the chance you can predict week to week weather more than 6 months ahead???

It is more productive thinking about what options you can build in case of foul weather. If you make an itinerary assuming it is a bowl of cherries, you can box yourself into having no alternatives.

>>> best cities to fly in and out of

If you want to choose simply, accepting any after the fact realizations, you can choose based on limited criteria you have outlined. However, if you want to minimize after the fact rethinking, identify key elements before hitting that not-refundable ticket purchase button.

First to do this, you need to ACTUALLY feed your itinerary into an airline booking engine to see what options you have.

You have several major airports you can play with and several other minor ones.

Just the a few major airports give options like these:

in MXP, out FCO
in VCE, out FCO
in FCO, out MXP
in FCO, out VCE
in MXP, out NAP
in VCE, out NAP
in NAP, out MXP
in NAP, out VCE
and so on and on...

Do they give you sufficient transfer time at the layover airport?
Is the layover airport weather problem prone? Like an airport in a hurricane region.
If there is a foul in connection, are there enough options in that airline alliance to get you to your final destinations without much delay?
How well do these flights mesh with your ground part?

If you arrive super early in the morning, you usually cannot check into your accommodation. You need to think what you are going to do during this time. Kill time, travel to another city, etc.