European connecting airport

I'd compare the schedules and airlines more than the airports themselves, most important is the layover time.

Thanks...am aware of that. But recall from past trips years ago some European airports are smoother than others.

Yes it is just in this case that I would not rank these that way. Frankfurt is fine with a three-hour layover, much less than that and you can have a problem, but this is more so if you have one of the flights that uses bus travel to get to the gate.
Paris not my favorite either, but if the layover is fine then it is not one to especially avoid (for me that is Heathrow).

If connecting through Amsterdam (AMS) is an option offered by your airline, I’d take a look at that. It’s an easy airport to navigate that offers priority immigration lines to connecting flights. Just to be on the safe side though, we usually choose a 2.5 - 3 hour layover.

I’m with JenS: if you connect through Schiphol, then that is an optimal option. It’s really organized. CDG always feels so frantic to me.

Where airport are you flying to in Italy?

I'm guessing that you are looking at flights out of RDU with nonstops to Europe. Lufthansa to Frankfurt? Air France to Paris?

My first trip abroad had me connecting at CDG...never again. Frankfurt is always my airport of choice.

To me both work well more or less equally, and I've used both many times. It really depends on the layover time.

Assuming you fly with Lufthansa, Frankfurt might require a slightly shorter time to change gates, but it depends on the gate where you arrive/depart and that can change from flight to flight.

Just know that 2 hours is the absolutely minimum layover time that is needed for less stressful gate change in Paris CDG. Less than two hours is doable, but you need to move really fast.

In Frankfurt, assuming both flights are Lufthansa or partner United, you might get away with a slightly shorter layover, maybe half hour less (depending on which terminal/gate your connection departs from).

I've changed planes in less than one hour in both on the way back to the US (usually because of flight delays), but it wasn't a pleasant experience at all.

I’d check using Madrid or Barcelona. We find those are fantastic gateways. You can usually get good miles deals on Iberia/partners. For example, business class for 34k miles fall 2026