Hello!
What is the best way to book a ticket from SFO to Milan or Florence ( final destination in Italy is Paterna in Upper Tiber Valley.The closest town is Citta di Castello in Perugia, in Umbria, just east of Tuscany.
The closest city is Arezzo).
We want to then go to Paris and fly out of Paris back to SFO.
Thank you!
You need to define what "best" means to you. However, I can give you some information, since we have always flown out of SFO for our many, many trips to Europe. I look for the shortest total time and, of course, price. I wouldn't accept some of the ridiculously long times, e.g., 35 hours(!), that I've occasionally seen, at any price.
There are no nonstop flights from SFO to Italy, but United and Delta/Air France fly non-stop from CDG to SFO. It's also considered best to have a change in Europe. If there's a delay, you're more likely to be able to get a different connection than if you have to do so from a U.S. airport.
Are you familiar with the concept of open-jaw itineraries; i.e., into one city and home from another? This is almost always the most cost and time effective option. You access it by clicking on "multi-city" on airline websites. It's not 2 one-way flights.
There are several websites on which you can see airline options and prices. 2 of them are kayak.com and skyscanner.com. It's generally advised, however, that you book actual tickets directly with the airline. Since you have to do a change outbound, you might try playing around with different Italian destinations, like Bologna or Pisa, or even Rome, in addition to Milan and Florence. You could then compare all the relevant factors, price, time, etc. Don't forget to include cost and ease of getting to your actual destination.
Given your intended itinerary (Umbria/Tuscany then Paris) from SFO the best option would be to fly AirFrance which has 1 daily non stop flight from SFO to Paris CDG (two daily flights in summer).
AirFrance also has 6 daily pairs from CDG to Florence (FLR).
Therefore the best would be to go to www.kayak.com and select a multicity flight as follows:
DATE 1 (date of departure): SFO > FLR: Many choices will come up with various airlines and routing. But the most convenient will be the AirFrance option with one layover only in Paris (SFO > CDG > FLR). That is your fastest route to Florence (about 14 hours in total).
DATE 2 (transfer to Paris): FLR > CDG (the AirFrance option will come up as one of the top choices)
DATE 3 (return to US): CDG > SFO. There will be various choices, but the non Stop with AirFrance will be the best for you.
One additional point. Citta' di Castello is approximately 1h45min drive from Florence, which would be the closest airport with connections to Paris. However Bologna airport (BLQ) is also not much further using the E45+A14 freeways (just over 2 hours). Bologna (BLQ) also has AirFrance flights to CDG, therefore you might want to try and replace FLR with BLQ to test which airport has the best pricing. Rome airport (FCO) would have even more flights, but it's a longer drive (almost 3 hours). Pisa is also another airport in Tuscany, but it's just as distant as Rome from Citta di castello, therefore you might as well go to Rome. I wouldn't bother with Milan (LIN) at all (AirFrance flies to Milan-Linate only), as Milan is well over 4 hours drive.
