Delta, Air France, and Alitalia have a relationship. When we booked 3 years ago, we found the best deals were through Alitalia and Air France (we flew into Paris and out of Rome). Both legs were great. I used google flights to get the best deal. Ended up paying about $700 pp rt.
You must be relieved, @conmama, for me, that’s the hadest part. Booking the hotels and activities are part of the fun!
What part of Rome are you looking in? I’m loving the look of that Trastevere neighborhood…trying to decide if it’s too long of a walk to other attractions…
Trastevere is a cool area - we did a great walking food tour there one night (highly recommend doing that). However, it isn’t close to anything else. It is fun to walk around Rome at night and see the fountains and buildings lit up, and you will be a little too far away to do that.
our delta flights were also alitalia and air france (couldn’t get direct home from Florence to Boston so we had to stop in Paris).
Wow! That’s a great fare, @taverngirl. I’ve never used google flights, have to look into that. I’m exhausted …using different search engines and trying o go through the airlines themselves…all those weird flights with 19-hour layovers and such, or taking off at times that would mean going to the airport at 3 AM. It’s eating up days of my time trying to figure it out. And if you try to take time to compare…whoops, the flight you want to compare is already gone…
@inthegarden , we liked staying in the historic district, and will be staying there again with our sons. The Travestere area is very nice and I wouldn’t blink at staying there. But for your first time I think you’d be better of staying closer to the main attractions. When are you going again and what cities?
We stay at the Albergo Del Senato right next to the Pantheon, it’s a little pricey, but it’s our splurge hotel. They have a wonderful 360 degree rooftop bar, views of St. Peter’s dome at sunset is quite special. Piazza Novanna area for hotels is wonderful I’ve read. We almost stayed at Hotel Campo di Fiori. It’s still considered city Center, about a 5-10 minute walk from Pantheon. You had to cross a Main Street though. (Not a highway or anything, just like a downtown street).
I’ve also done the Travestere Twilight Food Tour and can’t say enough about this tour. It was one of our highlights. Book you first night or two, then you can taxi back over for dinner somewhere if you’d like.
I agree the hotel and bookings are the fun part. Right now in Venice I have 2 reserved. One on the Grand Canal that is #130/415 hotel ranking on TA. Sounds like it’s just an ok hotel, no elevator, decent room and view, hard to find, but great location.
The other is #58, in a ritzy area street close to St. Marks square, and it’s not noisy. good things to say on TA, staff is amazing, hotel is amazing, price is great, In Rick Steves book. That is where I want to stay this time.
The reason I can’t make up my mind is that the first time we stayed in the Grand Canal and there was such an incredible WOW factor to looking out at the Canal from the 3rd floor and watching the boats and gondolas go by when we were in our room. Which was not much. So do we give that particular experience to the boys for $200 more for not as nice of a hotel. Will it even matter to them? I can ask but they don’t know. We’ve experienced it, we know how we felt. I guess have to make a decision on how we think they will feel.
I like to use Kayak and/or Google flights, both of which are aggregators combing numerous other sites. You can use their tools to filter and limit flights based on criteria like flight times, duration, layover length etc so you can rule out those long layovers and early morning departures. Give it a try. I try to still pick flights from there that are booked directly through the airline themselves rather than a 3rd party.
Give it a try and let us know if you have questions.
No, but we used to go thee all the time. It has the best seafood restaurants. Lucca is also one of my favorite cities too. We lost our party van there (parked at a no parking zone). It was all my fault. Trying to get it back when we didn’t speak Italian was challenging.
@Conmama. unfortunately, mid-late June…airfares have hit the roof…but it’s when I can travel with D (and before summer heats up anymore).
She finds large cities a little overwhelming but still wants to go to Rome for all the really, really old stuff (like the Forum) so I thought staying in Trastevere would be a good idea. But you’re right…I’d be better off booking in the city center. The rest of our trip will focus on smaller towns so she should be able to deal with it for a few days. I mean, she likes Manhattan in small doses so three or four days in Rome shouldn’t kill her.
As quaint as Travestere is, I think you’ll appreciate being able to walk quickly back to your hotel in the city center.
If you are going to small towns afterwards, then staying in the hustle bustle will be a good different flavor. I think if I were staying for an extended period, Travestere would be great.
My air wasn’t that terrific. $1,120 from the Midwest into Venice back from Rome. But I did read it’s not an unusual price for September.
I just can’t relax until I have air and hotels booked. Can’t change the air, but I can then just research more on hotels.
I just found a nonstop using United going to Rome, and Swissair from Zurich (my preference) for a surprising low price (for non-stop) through Google flights. Is United as terrible as some people say? Haven’t purchased yet but want to jump on it if it’s OK. @doschicos ? @conmama ? @oldfort ? Anybody?
@inthegarden , I have no idea! Sorry I can’t help.
I think I lost it anyway…when I went to choose a seat none of the economy seats would let me click even though they weren’t marked unavailable (and yet the premium economy would )so I didn’t know if I was doing something wrong or if they were already taken. Back to the drawing board! That non-stop seemed too good to be true! I think I’d risk it on United just to not have to change planes.
Don’t have an opinion on United as I haven’t flown them in a long time.
Re: having problems choosing a seat, many budget economy fares don’t allow you to choose a seat until either 24 hours before the flight or when you are at the airport. That’s why the premium economy had the option and your fare didn’t.
I’d be willing to make compromises to get the ease and shorter travel time of a non-stop flight.
Thanks @dos chicos…that makes sense. It’s just that there was a message…something about not having chosen a seat yet and no explanation. I’ll try it again.
@inthegarden you could try calling. I found my flights on Google flights but called to make the reservation. Just gave the customer service rep the flight numbers, etc. They were very helpful.
@taverngirl, that may be the way to go. I’m always so nervous that I will type something in wrong I take a lot of time. Then, often I time out and have to start at the beginning! Argh! last year I accidentally hit the scroll down that indicates we reside in Afghanistan, lol. That doesn’t match our passports at all 
Didn’t notice it until the night before our trip!
I’ve been at this all day and still haven’t made a decision. Am considering a flight that has a layover in London Heathrow for only one hour, 25 minutes and I’m nervous to choose that but it’s otherwise the best deal. I usually like a 2.5-hour layover, not too long but long enough for wiggle room.
Remember, you have 24 hours to cancel without penalty should something go amiss.
@inthegarden, you would hate our flights. Going there we have a 6 hr, 20 min. Layover at JFK. I chose it because it was the cheapest flight and the other comparable ones I didn’t like the layover time. Less than 2 hours. That makes me nervous in case there is an issue getting to That connecting flight.
Same thing happened the first time we went. It was kind of boring, we just read and talked. The excitement helped a little.
@conmama, @doschicos, I did it! Can’t believe it…we are actually going to Italy! Wasn’t sure it went through when I went to bed because the confirmation e-mail didn’t come through right away. In the end I just couldn’t swallow the price for a nonstop. We have a short-ish layover of 2 hr 20 minutes at JFK but I’m not too nervous because it’s after a quick shuttle from Baltimore. Going back, we’ll have over four hours in London. That’s OK because London Heathrow is kind of fun with lots of shops to browse in. And once I thought about it, the layovers before a transatlantic flight aren’t bad. The killer ones are when you’re stuck in an airport jetlagged after flying all night.
What I’m most excited about is that we’re flying out of Zurich without paying any more than a round-trip from Rome. So we’ll end in Lake Como and take a scenic train through the Alps. It’s just a few hours, less than going back to Rome. Won’t spend any time in Zurich, probably just an overnight before the flight at 1:25 PM the next day.
I love those features on Google flights that let you see the whole pattern of pricing over time for different fly-out locations/destinations. Most flights from Zurich were more expensive but by shifting our dates by a couple of days, was able to get a better price.