My wife and I, both seniors, will leave from San Francisco or Oakland around Sat Jul 9 and return around Sat Aug 13, as follows: (1) Fly to Paris, stay 4 nites. (2) Fly to Venice, stay 6 nites. (3) Train to Florence, stay 6 nites. (4) Rent car in Florence, drive to Volterra, stay 4 nites. (5) Drive to Pienza, stay 7 nites. (6) Drive to Assisi, stay 4 nites. (7) Return home by . . . what? Drive to Florence, take a train to Venice, fly back from Venice? . . . .Drive to Florence, take a train to Paris . . . ??? Need help on how to arrange each leg of the trip economically and efficiently. All suggestions welcome! We have a couple of days flexibility on both the departure date and the return date.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15799 posts
Hi Jonathan.
Work out the trans-Atlantic route, then plan the European route. Have you been to Italy and/or Paris before? Have you looked for open-jaw flights? Assisi isn't the best place to end a trip because it's not close to any airport. Your best option is probably Rome. It is possible to get to FCO from Orvieto if you have a late enough flight - it'll take about 3.5 - 4 hours to get from your hotel to the airport, with a transfer in Rome. Orvieto is pretty easy by train from Assisi and well worth a night or two. Otherwise, you're better off just spending your last night in Rome. I don't know why you're starting in Venice and ending in Assisi. Milan also has a large choice of international flights. If you end in Venice, you could take the train to Milan, spend your last night there. Or you may find a flight home from Venice.
If you fly open-jaw into Paris and home from Italy, then take a short flight from Paris to Italy. One of the best ways to find flights within Europe is to use wikipedia (!). On every airport page, there's a table (near the bottom) listing all the airlines using that airport and their destinations. For Paris-Venice, use the Venice page because Paris has multiple airports (watch out for Beauvais - it's far from Paris).
Flights within Europe usually have lower carry-on limits. Flights get more expensive as time goes on, so booking early saves money. You can also save a lot by buying train tickets months in advance.
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11852 posts
I like your itinerary a lot. You have some nice long stays in places people often only spend 2 or 3 nights. Good for you!
As Chani says, where to fly from Assisi is challenging, and you very well might have to spend a last night in a city with an airport: Firenze or Roma are probably the most convenient. You could drive into Roma, dump the car, have one magical night in the city, and fly non-stop to the West Coast.
Posted by
Green Bay
21393 posts
Using Matrix.itasoftware.com, best prices are on SAS with a single change in Copenhagen and going to Rome first and flying home from Paris saves about $100.
Posted by
Atlanta
5295 posts
Love the fact that you plan to spend a good bit of time in each location. Much better than just rushing around and you will have ample time to do day trips from each destination. Another vote here for flying into one place and back from another ("open jaws") in order to minimize time lost due to backtracking. Depending on the location of your last major stop you might want to fly back from Milan or Rome -- Venice might involve too much backtracking.
Posted by
lexington, il
4105 posts
Reverse the itinerary.
Fly into Rome,
Rent car @ airport or train to Orvieto.
Orvieto has a Hertz office
Pienza
Assisi
Volterra
Florence
Venice Drop car on arrival.
Fly Easyjet. VCE-Orly or CDG.
Paris
Fly home.
Posted by
OP
Benicia, California
61 posts
Thank you, everyone. We feel very grateful to be able to take such a trip, and any hassles or extra expenses due to our slightly weird itinerary (we "must" start in Paris, and ending in Assisi is important -- btw, it's clear that we'll drive from Assisi to a major city whence we'll fly home) are definitely the kinds of "problems" we're lucky to have.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
I'm not sure why you must end in Assisi. But the flights back to San Francisco tend to leave Italy early in the morning. So, you may have to spend your last night near your departure airport (either in the city or an airport hotel); you may not be able to spend your last night in Assisi and still make your flight. You could still spend most of the day in Assisi and just go to the last hotel that evening. But since there are no nonstops from Italy to SFO, you usually need to take an early flight to a European hub that does have service to SFO (like Paris, Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, or Munich). Flights to the US east coast depart later - but then your overall flight time is longer, the connection is more difficult (US immigration and customs take time), and you may end up landing at SFO quite late. You also need to get to the airport earlier for these flights. Getting to the airport two hours before departure is enough time for a flight within Europe, but you really need to get there three hours early for nonstop flights back to the US.
Roberto, a native of Florence who has lived near San Francisco for many years, is a regular poster here. He will know all the angles about getting back to the Bay Area from Assisi with the least hassle. If he doesn't jump into this thread, send him a private message.