airfares

Gail - For many years I've used a Wholesaler/Consolidator -
http://www.airfareplanet.com/ Give George , the manager, a call and see what his price is for your trip. Think you'll be pleasantly surprised

See You In Italia - Be there the same time as you,

Ciao, Greg

what are your dates ?

I wouldn't wait much longer. Your problem is that prices may change, but available seats will inevitably disappear. And of course the cheapest seats will sell out first.

Also, my experience with fares to Europe (I've made many trips) is that I've yet to find a website that gives you better fares than Expedia or Travelocity - and believe me, I've looked.

Unfortunately, if demand remains high on routes from Portland to Rome, prices will stay high. Right now, all the websites, including the one mentioned earlier, are running $1250+. The good thing is, they likely won't get any higher, but you do run the risk of seats being sold out completely. You may want to set a deadline of mid-February or so.
Another alternative is to check on other cities in Italy...if there are deep discounts to, say, Florence or Milan, it might be worth your while to head there, then take a train into Rome.
Another option is to see if there are any deals into a city like Barcelona, then taking a discount airline like Vueling into Rome. Barcelona airport, with two terminals, is relatively easy to move around in. If you leave yourself several hours as a pad, you should be OK. The risk of this, of course, is that if your originating flight is very, very late, and you miss your discount airline flight, you're out of luck. One way fares, all in, are about $150 or less. You would also likely have to plan to stay your last night in Barcelona, to make sure you can catch your flight home the next day.
Another option might be to consider flights out of Seattle or Eugene....you may find deals there, if you have a way of getting there without it costing an arm and a leg to park your car for the duration of your holiday.

Need more details to help such as dates and airports and any variations found just over $1000 port to rome May 10 for two weeks but need info

We are kind of stuck on these dates: Leaving May 20th and returning June 6th. I will probably wait another couple of weeks and then just bite the bullet. I was sure fares would go down after Christmas, but so far no such luck. :(

Greg, the site you mentioned showed the same fares as everyone else.

We will fly into Milan and out of Rome.

Thanks for the advice

Checked multiple locations and 1422 on JUne 6th versus 1247 June 7th. Thats 175 per person or 350 dollars. I would stay one day longer and enjoy the extra day basically for free as the 350 daollars would pay for a room and meals. Yeah

Gail, I was watching airfares for my trip to Italy 4/15 to May 4th for many months and, like you, thought they would go down after the 1st week in January. But alas, they didn't and so I "bit the bullet" and bought @ $1220 roundtrip Seattle - Florence. Every now & then I go back on the major travel websites to see if they went down and indeed, for a week the fares went down slightly but for peace of mind, I am okay with the price I ended up with. I recommend not waiting too much longer. Airfares are a crapshoot. You can try & work around finding flights to other cities but then you have to factor in the extra time it'll take you after an already long trip with possible jet lag and the price of train tickets. I just said to myself, it wasn't worth it to me to save $100. Just my 2 cents.

Hi Gail, I have been quoted 1400 dollars departing from Ft Lauderdale. I too have signed up for all the watch lists. This weekend I couldn't even look thru some airlines sites as there web was down. I don't leave til September but usually when I plan a trip I book and pay for my tickets several months in advance.Alas this is not the case and very frustrating. Last year the same trip was just over 900 dollars and we were there in May.I had booked and payed for it in November..If you see a ticket that you can live with ..go for it....
I wish you luck and happy travels
Pat

We are also playing the waiting game for tickets for a Lisbon-Madrid/southern Spain/Paris trip. Delta now demands 90,000 sky miles--wow, way up from the 60 th. We have plenty of flexibility and can work around some dates but hope to leave mid May and spend 3 weeks on the trip. Getting a flight direct from Atl is nearly impossible but we are okay with that. A flight for around $1,000 is looking fairly good right now. Looked at various consolidaters and found nothing--some are more than Delta. We are getting anxious to book hotels/apt in Paris but would never do this before booking airfare.