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Students should start looking for airfare as soon as possible. Summer travel to Italy is very popular, and securing a flight early usually means saving hundreds of dollars. In 2007, participants are paying between $650 and $1,200 between New York and Rome, depending in large part on when the ticket was purchased.

Rome is likely the most convenient airport to fly into, but other options are Milan, Bologna, Pisa and Florence, all of which involve 3-4 hours of travel time to reach our program’s locations in Rapolano and Carrara. (See this post for suggestions on getting to Rapolano from Rome.)

Some general advice on flights:

• Evaluate the differences not only in price but also travel time between direct vs multiple-leg flights. Sometimes saving a hundred dollars isn’t worth trading an eight-hour direct flight to 12-hours with a lay-over in a foreign city. Starting off the intensive workshop in an exhausted state might not maximize your experience.
• You may want to actually consider arriving in Rome a day or two early in order to unwind, get over jetlag and see the city. No trip to Italy is complete without visiting its colorful capital, and since we do not have the chance to take a field trip there, we strongly recommend that you take a weekend to go to Rome or else find time at the beginning or end of your trip.
• Be very careful to note when your flight arrives in Italy, and what time of day it departs from Rome before buying your ticket. Flights from New York typically leave at night and arrive the next day. Conversely, flights leaving Rome to go back to New York usually depart in the morning, which means that you have to sleep in Rome or nearby the night before in order to make your plane.
• Use travel search engines such as Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia and (if you’re student, faculty or below the age of 25) STA. Try plugging in different dates and departure/arrival cities to see the best fares available. Eurofly is a newer Italian airline that sometimes is not indexed in these searches and is worth checking out.

Finally, please contact us if you have questions about making your travel arrangements.