Flight information

No one can tell you the best time to purchase tickets. I'd suggest you start now with Kayak.com or other travel sight and see what tickets cost. Figure out how much you want / willing to spend to get there. Look at the options for each city, some are less expensive than other. January will be less expensive than other months, and always check travel for mid- week. Monday, Friday/Saturday/Sunday are more expensive travel days (Both in and out of country) You could find a screamer deal today! Check lots of airlines as well, compare pricing, and make sure you understand the connections. You will not fly from Little Rock directly to those cities, you will have 1-2 layovers. One flight might be really cheap, but then you might be spending 2 days getting there with an overnight stay (can you say AIRPORT chairs?) Be careful before you click the "buy" button..make sure you understand each leg of travel, and check your layover times carefully! you will LOVE Italy!

Ellen gave you very good advice. Since you live in Little Rock, check prices out of Atlanta, since there are lots of cheap flights to get you there! If you get anything under $1,000 you're doing well -- even a little above! This summer they were all $1800. I know, I shopped, I went!

Michelle, You might get some good tips by speaking with a Travel Agent. As this is your first trip to Europe, that might help you avoid a less-than-ideal choice in terms of flight duration, layovers or whatever. I always do some research on available flights before booking with my T.A. I would highly recommend picking up a copy of the RS Italy Guidebook (2014 edition will be released this month), as that provides an enormous amount of information on hotels, sightseeing, transportation, etc. There are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when travelling by train or other public transit in Italy, so it will pay to do your homework. January will be "quiet" in Italy, but the weather may also be less-than-perfect. As I recall from watching the Italian news channels, the winter weather this year included some cold temperatures, heavy snow and disruptions in transportation services. It would be a good idea to pack along some warm clothing. Happy travels!

Larry, I stand corrected! I'm an old broad retired from Delta, and have relatives in Little Rock. I've been to Venice, but never in the winter, and didn't realize that in the winter months, the Delta flight from JFK DOES put you through Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris -- which is a nightmare airport to connect through! So, my dear girl, listen to Larry who is more up to speed than I am!

I use ITA Matrix as a planning tool. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm?session=bdc19f61-ea60-4f27-8a81-a888edd95cff
First, decide how many days you want to spend in Italy. Put in Little Rock and Rome. "30 day calendar" and a start date of Jan 1. Then put in the number of days. You can put in a range, say 14-17 for a 14 to 17 day vacation. Hit search and you get the lowest price for every day in the month of January. Now pick the day you want to leave and you get all the flight options for that day lowest to highest. In your case I tested and found many days for a 14 day trip for $1005. Now you have to look at the flight details. In your case, to get that fare you need to spend a night in Atlanta, but that might not be too bad. Grab a room near the airport and start your vacation with a night in Atlanta. Next afternoon is a nonstop to Rome. Now that you have your dates, use the multi-city function to look into open-jaw, you can fly into Rome and leave out of Venice. You can often get this at the same or nearly the same price. You can't use the calendar function on multi-city flights, so you start with round trip to get your base fare.

Sam!! Brilliant! Just typed it out for myself! Also a word of advice to Michelle, you DONT want to have a stop or connection through Europe....it's a tiring trip @ 8 hours there and up to 11 hours on the return flight (headwinds). I would also try to Arrive in Venice and depart out of Rome. Or Arrive in Milan and depart out of Rome, because departures out of Venice to the U.S. leave Very Early in the A.M. and the Vaporettos are not yet running and you will need a private water taxi that will cost probably 100 euros.

Michelle, I can see fares for January multi-city flight right now on Delta for $1,066. This is not bad compared to what it has been. I would suggest flying into one city (i.e. Venice) and flying out of another (i.e. Rome). The airlines will do a "mulit-city" flight for you. Next, most any low-cost flight out of Little Rock with require a two plane changes to get most any place in Italy. Second, you will be changing airlines as well. Works this way for us in Sacramento as well. My wife and daughter returned last evening from their 2-week trip to Italy. 2 plane changes going and 2 plane changes returning. Next, you don't need to spend a night anywhere to get to Italy. You spend the night on the plane. For example, you fly Delta from LIT to ATL (Atlanta) departing about 11:30am. After a short layover in Atlanta, you depart ATL at about 4:00pm for Paris. You arrive at about 6:00am the next day. 2 hours later, you are on an Air France flight to Venice. Yes, almost 15hrs but that's the way it works. You leave at 11:30am and by 10:00am the next day, you are looking at the Grand Canal. Hopefully, you slept a bit on the plane. My wife and daughter just did this only they went on United via Frankfurt, Germany and Lufthansa. Same way coming home. I have a fairly complete Excel spreadsheet of the their entire 2-week trip. They arrived in Venice, went to Florence, stayed in a fantastic agriturismo near Siena, stayed in Assisi and finally in Rome. They departed from Rome-FCO. I have a complete list of where they stayed, what they did and how much it cost. If this appeals to you, send me a private message with your email address and I'll send it to you.

Thank you all so much for your help and tips! I did buy the Rick Steve's book on Italy, so I will start reading!!! I'm sure I will need a little more help along the way! Michelle

Larry, Delta has a non-stop from ATL - FCO (Rome) at 4:40PM. I would take this unnless it's a LOT cheaper, rather than flying into another city in Europe, or fly from Little Rock to JFK for a direct flight into Venice if she wants to arrive in Venice and Depart from Rome. Just my opinion.

Donna is correct that Delta has a non-stop flight to Rome from Atlanta. United can do it from Dulles. I'm sure that American and U.S. Airways can do it as well. Alitalia can certainly do it from ORD, JFK and Miami. The Delta flight to Venice from JFK is via Paris-CDG for January. My objective was to get Michelle to Venice for $1,066 from Little Rock. These are 2-stop flights. 1-stop flights are usually more expensive. Try going to www.kayak.com and research flights while checking the 2-stop box and checking the 1-stop box.