irishguy28 thanks for the reply.

I did a quick look at the fare level prices for a few different countries and it looks like North Africa have the cheapest prices so I figured to start/end in Tunis as it is close to Rome for the various Alitalia routes. So if it is allowed to buy online and pay the Tunisia price then that saves about £1300. Getting from London to Tunis and back again would be cheaper than the £1300 to make it worthwhile.