Hello Everyone,

I've been lurking on flyertalk.com for a while and I have learnt so things, flyertalk is an awesome, awesome site, I cannot thank you enough!!!

When one of my girl friends who is getting married in July asked me to help her get some information about flying her party out to Urbino, Italy for the wedding, I immediately thought of flyertalk.

Hence, my first post.:)

Here is the gist.

Jenn (who is from New Jersey) is getting married to Andrea (the Italian) on July 7, 2007. They currently live in Los Angeles so they, together with some of their friends, will be flying out of LAX. Most of Jenn's family is still in Jersey and so another group will probably be flying out from the east coast.

They are getting married in the small town of Urbino, best known as the birthplace of the famous renaissance artist Raphael. I believe the nearest towns where international flights can fly into are Florence and Bologna.

I am looking for information about the best time to book airtickets for travel in early July. What are some airlines I should look into? Will there be a fare sale sometime in March for flights to Italy in the summer? What is the average price range for flights departing from LAX & New York to Italy over the summer?

I spoke to a few travel agents who have suggested paying for whatever is available right now in order to secure the seats as everything for the summer will be sold out very soon. While I can understand the need to secure seats, I also don't want to be pushed to pay for about 10 to 20 tickets without doing some research first.

In addition to flight information, I would also appreciate some suggestions about possible day trips or hotel accomodations in Florence.

Thank you all!

Chandster

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Chandster!

I've been to the Marches province, and specifically the Pesaro-Urbino area, about ten times, in order to attend the Rossini Opera Festival (Pesaro, just a few miles from Urbino, is the provincial capital and is Rossini's birthplace, hence the festival).

I can't offer specific advice on airfares (I know that many other FTers will contribute good information) but I'll just offer some general ideas:

To me, Bologna (BLQ) would be the preferred airport, as it is closer than Florence. By car, it is 95 miles on the A14 autostrade from Bologna to Pesaro (another 10 miles or so to Urbino). If traveling by train, there is a direct bus connection from BLQ to the Bologna Centrale train station, where frequent trains take you on to Pesaro.

Another alternative is flying into Milan and taking the train or driving the rest of the way.

On hotels, has any consideration be given to staying in Pesaro? It is a seaside (Adratic Sea) all-year resort which is jam-packed during August (due to the Festival and to vacationing Italians and other Europeans ) but easier (and less expensive) to stay in during other times. If this is an option, I would urge you to look at the Cruiser Congress Hotel, which is quite modern (including air conditioning), has good food, and is directly across the street from the beachfront:


http://www.cruiser.it/italiano/centro.html


Again, just some "thinking out loud" ideas .... Congratulations to the happy couple!

The rate usa-blq will probably be the same as usa-mxp or usa-fco. there is a lot of mountain and not so good road between arezzo and urbino. the airport is new, and very nice at blq. the bologna-ancona autoroute was put in for the world cup back around 1990 and is great. flr has been redone, butI have not been since redo.

As n-nr said, area books early. so do the places back into the mountains. they close in winter, and are spas. most hotels around there(i have only stayed in faenza and forli((home of mussolini))) are tiny. probably big ones in rimini, and ancona, but those are big summer resorts, as noted.

the planes do sell out early, and as for the past 25 years, rumor has it that AZ will be going under very soon. just go on orbitz and check nyc-blq-nyc(or LALA). the quotes may not include AZ.

for that many people, you may do better with someone who sets those kinds of things up. i know nothing of it, but for 20 people i would certainly try to find out about it. i would also try to find an italian based company to see if they can get a package rate. somebody should be interested, as this is real money.

I have never been to italy in mid summer, only to bologna 20 straight in feb.

If it were myself, I would look into Air Tran or Delta from Lax to Atl hoping to get a sale price and then ATL non stop to Milan on Delta and get a car. Just keep checking the prices for the days you want. Or give those dates to a travel agent and they will check them everyday. Of course, Delta LAX to Milan would include a stop in ATL, and you can never tell about pricing. Love to see other thoughts on this.

Just to clarify, Alitalia is up for sale.

An Italian low cost airline (I can’t remember the name) flies direct from NY to Bologna.

The following are great day trips from Florence. Beware, they are on nearly every tourists path and in August with be crowded.
Siena
San Gimignano
Volterra
Pisa
Lucca

Unfortunately, Urbino is a bit out of the way thus there are only a few places that are doable in a day. Pesaro is one. Rimini is great if you are interested in the 20 something beach scene.

most hotels around there(i have only stayed in faenza and forli((home of mussolini))) are tiny. probably big ones in rimini, and ancona, but those are big summer resorts, as noted.Did you make it down to Predappio and Il Duce's family crypt? I'm also guessing you saw the ceramics museum in Faenza :) (outstanding).

It does get quite warm in the summer. My first time going down, I rented an Opel Astra without air conditioning - I haven't made that mistake again :D

Rimini is great if you are interested in the 20 something beach scene.Or Riccione, for even wilder ...... oops, back on topic :)

In reading the OP, I'm not understanding something - are the American wedding guests going to travel together in a single group, or will they have separate itineraries and rendezvous in Pesaro-Urbino?

An Italian low cost airline (I can’t remember the name) flies direct from NY to Bologna.

Eurofly: http://www.euroflyusa.com/index.asp

Looks like fares are $1000-1200 to MXP from NYC for July. I'd suggest waiting for them to come down to $700 or so, maybe by March or April. You should troll around sites like expedia and travelocity each day, so you can get a sense of the ebb and flow on air fares. You may get a better deal going in to Rome, then you can drive or take the train to Firenze.

In terms of accomodations, I think you need to jump on that right away as they will surely book early and I don't think you'll see that much variability in price. Have you considered booking a villa? Based on the number of people in your group, it may be a better solution than hotel rooms. However, a lot of the villas have probably already been booked. You can take a look at Parker Villas (http://www.parkervillas.com) to get a sense of what's available. I used them for a rental 2 yrs ago and it worked out well.

Ciao !

I strongly recommend flying in and out of PSA (Pisa). It's a great airport. FLR is undersized, underequipped, and nestled awkwardly between the hills requiring a difficult, tight approach, and it is almost always fogged in during the morning hours (when most flights are scheduled to depart). Among the airlines which fly there are AF, AZ, BA, IB, and LH, as well as a number of LCC's, including RyanAir.

DL begins direct service JFK-PSA on May 31.

On AZ it not only usually doesn't cost any more to book through to PSA (or BLQ) than just to MXP or FCO, but I've even seen times when it is cheaper to connect through than to stop at the hub.

Thank you all for your suggestions. To answer one of your questions, guests will be flying into Italy in small groups as opposed to one big group.


I will be looking out for fare sales. Keeping fingers crossed....