How do I travel to Italy without spending a fortune?

Hi, what is your origin airport and planned dates of travel, so we can make recommendations?

Boston, Massachusetts, October 1-31, 2024.

Train from Frankfurt to Florence is a 11-14 hour trip
Not really a good idea as it will cost you a day each way plus the train cost and possibly a throw away overnight

You could fly budget from Frankfurt to Florence
(There are no direct flights to Florence from US)

Try Rome or Milan- then trains are easy/fast/cheap
Are you only planning to see Lucca??

We need your origin airport to offer best advice
Next October is pretty far out
Set up some Google flight alerts to get a feel for price changes, might just be too early to book-those October flights are just being released now

You really cannot get an accurate price now because October 31 is more than 330 days away. For the dates available (October 1 to October 23), I am seeing $1178 for nonstops to Rome on Delta, although that may be a "light" fare, without luggage. However, I am seeing flights on TAP with a connection in Lisbon for half that.

I would suggest you start looking at nonstop flights from Boston to Rome on ITA Airways. It's way too early to book, but would be helpful to start getting an idea of the range of fares. You can also book through to Florence on ITA. But with cheap train tickets, It's easy to get to Tuscany once you're in Rome. Search directly on the ITA Airways web site - don't rely solely on Google flights, Expedia, etc.

I was in Rome the first two weeks of November - booked the flight [from Los Angeles] back in March - prices jumped all over the place, but closer to departure were close to where they were back in March. Fares may be lower later in October vs. earlier. And dates should be flexible - you can often save a few hundred bucks by moving a departure just a day or two.

Look for fare sales. And as others have said, the extra time you spend traveling from a remote city to save a few bucks may not be worth it in the long run.

Several times we flew to wherever in Europe had the cheapest fare from our home airport and then proceeded to our final destination from there. We either took the train or flew on a budget airline. If taking the train, we just chose another location or two between where we landed and our final destination to explore for a night or two and called it part of the adventure. It does depend on how much time you have.

Check fares from NYC. We are hub captive in Atlanta. Fares out of NYC are sometimes half what they are out of Atlanta. I've also checked fares on Delta from Boston and Detroit. New York is always less due to competition.

Thank you! This is all great advice.

I would look into flying into Rome and consider connecting flights to save money. We bought tickets connecting into Rome and then fly to Sicily in May. We saved money but it was more hassle. So that is the trade off.

If you can get reasonable flight direct to Rome , that would be very doable with fast trains. It was about $400 more a ticket for us so went through Paris. We ended up spending two nights in Rome before flying to Sicily which we did not mind. But then had to take flight night before our international flight back to Rome. I did mind that even though all worked out smoothly.

Credit cards who give you the miles for a trip to Europe…

You could open a credit card with Delta Amex or American Airlines Citi Mastercard with a high point incentive.
40,000 - 60,000 points on AA or Delta will usually get you an October return trip to Europe with only paying Taxes and fees. (approx. $200).

PLAY airlines, a budget airline out of Iceland, flies from Boston to Bologna and to Venice. Either would be a shorter train trip to Florence. Right now, they only show flights through early October. I flew them to Amsterdam this past October with no problem.

Bologna to Florence is a 37 min fast train
They run almost every 30 min

Using Kayak or Google Flights look into:
BOS-FLR
BOS-BLQ
BOS-PSA
the above are in Tuscany or (Bologna BLQ) outside of Tuscany but very close.
Italy’s largest airports (Rome FCO and Milan MXP) generally offer better deals,
therefore also check:
BOS-FCO
BOS-MXP
However consider that from Milan MXP Airport to Florence (Tuscany) the high speed train takes at least 3 hours, while the high speed train from Rome takes about 2.5 hours, and it costs about $70 per person one way. So you need to factor in the additional train time and cost. In addition, no matter which airport you fly from to come home, you must spend the last night in the city you depart from because flights to North America depart in the morning. That means that if you fly out of Milan MXP or Rome FCO you must sleep in that city or near the airport on your last night. If you depart from Florence (with a layover somewhere else in Europe) you can spend your last night in Florence.
It’s a little too early to check now for October 2024, but keep looking, you never know when deals might show up.

I went to Tripmasters and ran a trip Boston to Rome 3 nights, Florence 3 nights with train to Florence and return air from Florence and got a price of $2309 for two people. Oct 9 arrival. OPs airfare of $3000 for two thus seems like he is spending a fortune.

Just in case you're not aware, on Google flights you can enter "Europe" as your destination and see what flights are costing to various places. I just did this with Boston entered and April dates selected (perhaps comparable to October as they're both shoulder season) and saw that TAP Airlines (Portugal) has very reasonable flights to Milan MXP (about three hours by train from Florence).

Swim! ;-) Just joking.

Seriously, we did what Janet suggested.
We flew to Munich and took a discount airline to Venice.
That was 4 years ago so I'm not sure if that is a good option now.

I fly out of Boston and can tell you the most expensive flights I have had (consistently) have been to Italy. Sometimes, Aer Lingus has good prices. Obviously it won't be direct but with a layover in Dublin. I flew to Venice and back from Rome this October and I paid about $1,200 back in December 2022. Based on my experiences, that was a good price. In June 2023, I flew direct to Rome and back from Naples (with layover in Paris) and I paid about $1,600. The prices you are seeing are normal/reasonable for flying from Boston to Italy.

Don't fly into Florence even if it's a reasonable price. That airport is notorious for diversions and cancellations. It has a short runway and is susceptible to weather issues because of its topography.

Pisa, MXP, or FCO would be a better option (or even Bologna)