flight from Rome to Venice

I am not sure what your dates of travel are, but I just searched March 8 and 9 and found $88 fares on Alitalia using skyscanner.net. If you are flying into Rome and heading straight to Venice, be very cautious on booking your connection to Venice. If it is not part of your original ticket and your US - Rome flight is late, you may miss the flight to Venice and have no recourse but to buy another ticket.

EDIT: Using skyscanner resulted in the price going up to $194 when transferred to the Alitalia web site as you saw. Use flights.google.com instead. When I clicked the purchase button,l the price was $88 on the Alitalia web site..

Kristen,

Another option you could consider would be to travel by train from Rome to Venice, as it's an easy trip (about 4H:35M with one change). I doubt that a flight will be much (if any) faster once all is considered. By the time you deplane in Venice, get to the boat and travel to your hotel, I suspect the time will be about the same. Travel by train will be much less of a hassle and you can nap on the train, which will take the edge off jet lag.

Are you arriving in Venice a day or two before the tour starts?

So this is weird. I used sky scanner - thanks for that tidbit - and got the $88 fare again. It linked me to a 3rd party vendor for the ticket. I really try to purchase through the airline directly in case there are problems down the road so I tried google flights and got linked to Alitalia and the currency was in euros but it was close to $88. When I relogged into the site as from the US instead of from Italy - the flight went up to $194. Time to start dinner and work on this later tonight with a cocktail in hand.

Actually, from Rome to Venice by train is a journey of 3 hours 45 minutes and there are no changes involved with the fast Frecciarossa or Frecciargento trains. The fare for the trip is as low as €29 if purchased well in advance, but timing the train correctly is tricky. I might book the slightly more expensive Economy fare (€39-59) because the time can be changed if necessary ( if your flight is late arriving).

We had thought about the train briefly but thought that after traveling all night, we would want to get there and flying seemed quickest. Time wise - is it really essentially a wash? Frankly, I haven't looked at where the train station or airport is located - I'm just trying to take advantage of cheap airfare. It looks like I may be pennywise and pound foolish. That's why I'm on these boards. I know nothing about planning an overseas trip - yet.

This could be that Skyscanner is taking you to a US website for Alitalia. I was able to duplicate Stephen's work on flights.google.com and was taken to Alitalia's ITALIAN web page, in English), with a price of 78.xx Euro ($87 US currently)

SInce this is your first trip overseas, I would advise you to put another couple days' thought into this connection. The price will not change go up in a couple days, and I doubt it will come down. meanwhile, you should research how much time you will need to make this connection -as advised above, this will be on a separate ticket so you have no protection from the airline bringing you in if it is late. As you are entering and remaining in Italy, you will need to go through immigration and customs on deplaning from your flight from the US, this will cause additional time spent before your ongoing flight; I don't know the Rome airport and do not know if you will still be airside after this or have to go through security again, nor the transfer time between terminals. At the same time, research what is involved with the trains, as in where the train leaves you in Venice relative to where you need to be, and where Marco Polo airport is and what you will need to do to get to your lodging. When you've considered all of these factors, including the time spent waiting for your connecting flight, it will be easier for you to make a decision between flying and training to Venice. Personally, after an overnight flight, if the time will be the same by train or air, I'd much rather be in transit than sitting around the airport waiting for the plane.

Kristen, if you do look at a train option, depending on your arrival into Rome you could take the Leonardo Express, $21ea, to Roma Termini. Then catch an Italo Train, http://www.italotreno.it/?sc_lang=en, to Venice S. Lucia starting at 55 Euros ($61) each. Their departure times are 08:15, 10:15, 14:15 & 19:45, 2 1/2 months out. I've used Italo in the past and enjoyed it.

Just to clarify one point from the previous reply. The cost for the Leonardo Express from FCO airport to Roma Termini is €14 PP. The cost may be less than that however as some rail connections use Roma Tiburtina. In that case you'd be using the FM1 train which is cheaper. If you've booked your flights and have an arrival time, it would be easier to provide some "ballpark estimates" for the rail trip, which will most certainly be less stressful than another flight and probably faster.

Don't forget to count the cost (financial and time) for flying - waiting, traveling to the airports, from the airports, security lines. The airport in Venezia is further away from the city than the train station is.

We just did a self directed trip to Italy for the first time last month. After months of research, I finally settled on the least complicated alternatives. This included having the hotels arrange for a car to and from the airport (FCO) and using taxis for longer distances in Rome. I know that I paid a little more for the convenience, but boy was it worth it. It took less time, was convenient, we didn't get lost and the trip from FCO to the hotel was like a mini tour and a great introduction to the city.

While this doesn't parallel your itinerary, I mention it to say that "penny wise and pound foolish" is a good analogy. You can get more detailed and finesse a second trip once you've oriented yourself the first time.

Also, I should give credit to the people on this forum for their insight and assistance and helping me arrive at the decisions that I made - they and their suggestions were absolutely priceless.

P.S. The process gets easier and easier the more you read and research things!

These have all been wonderful suggestions and are greatly appreciated. I am going to look more closely at taking the train. It's not so much the cost of the ticket that's the deciding factor (although I didn't want to pay more than twice for airfare) but wanting to do what makes the most sense. I realize that can be different for different travelers but folks on here have sage advice and I am not shy about asking.

You have one issue that no one has addressed. That is - getting through immigration. That is a huge variable so it becomes a question of when to book the on-going air or train from FCO. You should be able to get through immigration in an hour or so. But a year ago on a Saturday morning it took us two and half hours. So I would not book an independent ticket to Venice via air or train unless you have a three hour window or more. Remember you have to check-in for the next flight and go through security. Some European airlines cut off check in 45 mins prior to departure. So book an open jaw ticket into Venice and home from Rome. That way you are covered for any flight delay or getting through immigration. If using the train, the train ticket can be purchased at the train station in the airport.

We just had an experience where we had booked an on-going flight with easyJet. Thought we had covered our bases with the flexfare that permitted a change should our original flight be late. Our original flight from the US was cancelled, then rebooked for a day later into a different connecting city. So we lost the easyJet ticket because the new connecting city was not serviced by easyJet. Lesson learned.

Kristen,

If you decide to take the train, the best solution is to buy your tickets for both trains at the airport rail station in Rome / FCO. This will cost more than a pre-booked ticket, but is a safer alternative. Tickets for the fast trains have compulsory seat reservations which are specific to train, date and departure time so can only be used on the ONE train listed on the ticket. If your flight is late or you get delayed at Passport control (or whatever) and you miss your booked train, the ticket is worthless and you'll have to buy another at full price. If you board any other high speed train without seat reservations for that train, you'll be subject to hefty fines which will be collected on the spot!

Another point to mention is that if you take the Leonardo Express or FM1 from the airport, those are Regionale trains and you MUST validate (time & date stamp) your ticket prior to boarding the train or again, hefty fines!

It sounds complicated but it's all rather easy in reality. You might find it helpful to have a look at the excellent Ron In Rome website as that has lots of great information on the trains in Italy and getting from the airport into Rome.

I don't like the idea of separate air tickets; it's the same problem as with pre-booked train tickets. If you are delayed for any reason, you have to buy a new flight. It sounds like you're "stuck" with round trip flights from Boston to Rome, however. In that case, I'd just plan to get train tickets on arrival, and budget for this. Door to door, it will be as fast or faster than flying (the point about the airport being much farther from central Venice than the train station is important), and cheaper than a last minute flight ticket that you would need if you buy a flight in advance and miss it.

However, if you are looking to book domestic trips on Alitalia, be sure to use their International website; this has an English language option and seems to give the same prices as their Italian website. Their US website often has higher fares for these flights. (There's no advantage to using the International or Italian websites for flights from the US, however).