Good multi-city airport options for Italy (north to Rome)

I just use google to pull up all airports, but I don't mind not flying direct. I will sometimes rule out all flights that have more than one layover using Google Flight search.
But what's in your plans? No point in checking all of them if they are too far from your planned itinerary. Somewhat close to Rome you could check Pisa (seems to have more flights versus Florence or Genoa).

See if Bologna does anything for you --- I was surprised when buying our tickets for this winter that into Bologna and out of Rome beat Milan prices, which are usually the best for us.

From Florida the first question for me would be where can I depart from the US to make the best connections to where I want to go in Europe. Frankfurt and Munich and Zurich have lots of US arrivals and then you can go on to your actual destination. Good luck. Even from the Mid-Atlantic I usually end up in Frankfurt or Munich on the way to northern Italy.

Milan Malpensa is always cheaper, for whatever reason.
Your choice should be based on your ground itinerary. For example if you intend to visit Venice, Florence and Rome (but not Milan), it might make sense to fly to Venice and return from Rome, even though it might be more expensive than flying to Milan.
Flying to Milan may be cheaper, but then you must factor in the additional train fare expense, and the additional time, and time is money. Also consider that while you can stay the last night in Rome and use the last day to sightsee, Milan airport is very far from the city, therefore you might prefer to stay at an airport hotel near Malpensa airport.

Thanks for your replies. The basic plan was Milan across to Venice, down through Tuscany and end in Rome. There are a lot of choices on the itinerary that won’t be firm until I book our flights.

Bologna is worth looking at. I had tested it as an alternative to Rome, but not as an alternative to Milan.

Departure is going to be Washington DC area, most likely Dulles. We used to live right there but my oldest son still lives about a ten to fifteen minute drive from Dulles. If it’s a good deal, however, we can easily go out of BWI or Reagan (less likely).

Brad

Thanks for your replies. The basic plan was Milan across to Venice, down through Tuscany and end in Rome.
P

In that case I’d just pay the extra money and fly from Rome unless it is extremely expensive. Rome doesn’t really have an easy alternate airport.

You could also consider reversing the itinerary to start in Rome and end in Milan - sometimes that works to avoid a specific expensive segment (e.g. the FCO-USA leg maybe cost more because it is nearly full the day you want).

We ended up flying round-trip to Venice. It was about two hundred cheaper per ticket.

The cost would have been fine but total time, flying home from Rome, was 25 plus hours with layovers from later evening (9 or 10 pm) to the next morning. Ironically, I was getting better flight options home from Venice, through Rome, than straight from Rome.

I found similar with Milan, price was decent, but route wasn't.

Air France, Lufthansa, Swiss, SAS, and Turkish Air all had pretty good options from Dulles to Venice. We're taking Lufthansa with a reasonable stop in Munich both ways.

We may take a local flight from Rome to Venice or just plan to drive a circular route to begin and end around Venice.