Flights to Italy

If there are no fare sales now, I would wait at least until November which is six months prior to your trip. I would also regularly look for fare sales. 20-30 hours sound excessive.

Prices are high and have been. What is driving your prices as much as anything is the Naples leg. Naples is not the most convenient airport to arrive or depart. You might look at Rome or Milan as well. I would track the fares for a while till at least late Fall. BUT -- if you see a fare drop, jump on it. Don't wait for it to go lower. The days of super cheap fares are over for a while.

Wow, even from the West Coast 30 hours seems excessive. Where does the airline have you laying over? Are you looking at several different airlines or do you have a particular carrier you like? I'm a Delta fan myself but would not take a 30 hour total journey even from my end of the line airport.

I agree to see if a RT flight to Rome with the short train ride onto Naples just might be a major time and money saver.

What airport are you using as your "home in California"? If that's not one of the major big-city airports (SFO, LAX, etc.), the first (or last) leg may be adding a disproportionate amount of time and/or cost. Try searching from the nearest big city airport and see how much it changes; the issue may also be at the destination end (Naples is not a small town, but it has limited direct flights to the US - try looking at flights to Rome or Milan for comparison).

Prices for flights are often high these days (inflation, the cost of jet fuel, popularity of travel). But 20-30 hours is not what I'd expect - a nonstop flight for the US west coast to Italy should clock in at about 12 hours, obviously more with a connection or two, but 20-30 hours is crazy. Of course, the trade-off one often faces is [lower prices and multiple/longer connections] versus [higher prices and shorter/fewer connections]...that's the airline pricing model (you may have to pay higher costs to buy your way out of pain).

Thank you all. I did consider flying to Rome and taking the train the rest of the way, that's what we did last year. The 20-30 hour trips have us laying or 8 or 9 hours in San Francisco or Newark. I look at Orbitz or AA as that is the airline that is most convenient. We live in Palm Springs and it is often a little difficult flying out of here but in the past we fly Palm Springs to Dallas and from there points on the east coast or Europe. We have flown out of LAX but that is not the easiest place to get to and from before and after the trip from here in the desert. I will continue to look. Thanks for all your replies.

I often find the same problem when I try to fly from SFO to Florence (FLR). Flying to airports that are not major airports (like Rome or Milan) costs more and sometimes requires longer journeys (longer layovers or multiple layovers). If Rome is also part of your intended places to visit, you should look into flying from California to Rome. Unfortunately the only non stop is from LAX (with ITA Airways) and it's seasonal (not sure if operating in May next year). However there are plenty of choices from California to Rome (FCO) with one layover somewhere, either in Europe (which I prefer) or in the East US (which I hate and therefore use only if I'm using mileage points to pay).
To fly to Naples, you'd need to fly to one of these European gatewayz first: basically CDG (AirFrance) or MUC (Lufthansa), because all other options (LHR with British or ZRH with Swiss) may not have early flights for you to make the return leg from those places, so you'd probably need to spend the night in London or Zurich.
You can also fly non stop to Newark (EWR) with United, but it's a seasonal summer flight and may not be operating in May.

Therefore I suggest you look into flying to Rome (FCO). Make Rome part of your trip, and spend the last few nights (or at least one night) in Rome, before coming home, since flying back to the US will require an early departure. When you go there, you can go to Naples on the day you land, since your flight is likely to arrive early enough. Just take a train from Rome to Naples.

Roberto, Thank you for your suggestion. I may fly to Rome and I know that it is a quick train ride down to Naples. But I have been to Rome many times and we are staying in Naples for two weeks in the same apartment, one that we have stayed in before. Thanks again for your reply.

Just check flying both to NAP and FCO from your home airport.

If the price difference is only a couple hundreds $$, then maybe you might decide to fly directly to NAP since you can save the train time, the train money, and the hassle of getting a hotel for the last night in Rome.

Unless I need to go to Rome for a reason or another (I have relatives there too), since my final destination is Tuscany, I generally prefer to fly directly to Florence even though it might cost me some extra money (unless the difference is exorbitant). Sometimes the convenience is worth the extra bucks.

If your California airport of choice is SFO, look into Lufthansa/United via Munich (MUC), which is a very efficient airport to change planes. I prefer MUC to CDG (AirFrance) any day.

Two suggestions, my friend: Open Jaw and Black Friday.

CT, I assume you mean check on deals on Black Friday, good idea. If by "open jaw' you mean fly into one city and out of another, well I often do that when I go to Europe, if I'm traveling around, but this particular trip we are spending the entire two weeks in Naples. But thanks for the suggestions.

Re flights California to Italy: dont know where you are originating or old news by now, I just got on Rick Steves - there’s a round trip to London Heathrow from San Francisco (also from Sacramento) on Delta that is just over 1000$ for economy (probably less from L.A.). Then, round trip flights Heathrow to Rome also cheap. As i recall our total TRAVEL time to Rome with this arrangement from Sac was 22 hours, 13.5 hour travel time Sac to Heathrow (which includes 2 hour layover in Seatac), then we had 5 hours waiting in Heathrow and 3.5 hour flying time nonstop Heathrow to Rome, British Air, about $300.