Flying to Europe - Layover in Canada

No, follow the signs for intransit passengers. Are you suggesting a layover in both Montreal and Toronto. That does not make any sense. Hopefully you meant Montreal or Toronto.

The layover going to Italy would be in Montreal. The returning flight to the US would be in Toronto.
So the flights would only be one stop for both trips.
Thanks

No, if you are just transferring, you should not have to go through passport/immigration control (or "customs" either - customs is for your bags) when transferring through Toronto or Montreal on your way to Italy.

On the way back, when passing through a connection in Toronto or Montreal, you would go through US Preclearance - this is a good thing (a benefit). Instead of going though the process that one normally goes through when you enter the USA, you do that in Toronto/Montreal before you board your flight to the USA (the US CBP customs and border protection is set up to do that in select foreign airports), then once you land in the US, you just get off the plane and you proceed as if you had arrived on a domestic flight. Preclearance is great.

Regardless, personally, I'd much rather transit through Toronto or Montreal than JFK or Newark (which are not particularly attractive airports, at least to to me, tastes vary).

not sure if you have to go through customs but it won't be difficult and at YUL, a small airport, really, you should be fine.

When we last connected in Toronto (Air Canada to Air Canada), there was an expedited immigration checkpoint just for transiting passengers. We prefer going through Toronto, because it's further north and the flight over to Europe was therefore a bit shorter. Plus it's Canada - what's not to like about Canada?

I am qualifying this as I haven’t flown this route using Air Canada since 2019. However, shortly before our trip we were notified that our itinerary had been changed to Qatar Airlines and the returning flight involved a long 6 or 7 hour layover in Canada. i have not used this option again.

Montreal’s airport is not that small.
Last time I changed planes there, we had to get an airport “car” through to the next gate as I still had a bad knee and they told me it was a really long walk.
The little car drove fast and it still took about 8 minutes.
Very easy to change planes in Canada as the signage in airports is excellent.

To underline David's reply, when landing in Toronto, be sure to go to the US transit lounge -- I am not sure of the formal name -- rather than the big room for Canadians exiting in Toronto. There are usually some employees around to point you in the right direction.

If you can go through Montreal both ways that would be my preference. Not quite as busy as Toronto.

I wish you had put the airports specifically you're thinking of flying to and the dates going and coming. We could give you much better feedback.

Best flights are not necessarily the cheapest flights. The total time is important as is the time of day you arrive. And if you know where to look online, it's easy to find the cheapest flight dates and days in a specific time period.

For example, there's one budget air carrier that connects in Toronto, but they're famous for changing schedules if the planes are not full enough.

We were in Italy in June, and we connected in London LGW. Gatwick also has a bunch of flights going into Italy.

Thanks all for the feedback.

We would be flying June 2023 from RDU to Milan and back to US, Rome to RDU.

We only want 1 stop with layovers 1-3 hours. From my Kayak search, the best rates and times seem to be a stop in Montreal going, and Toronto, coming back.

Hi Michael. We've flown over and back to Europe with a stop in Montreal or Toronto several times, it has worked fine. Enjoy your trip!