Arrival Information:  Italy has two major airports for international flights from the USA -- Rome's Fiumicino Airport and Milan's Malpensa Airport.  Both are around an 8 hour flight from New York.  Both of these airports offer connecting service to all of Italy's major destinations.  There is also connecting service from the USA to Milan and Rome plus the airports of Firenze, Venezia, Napoli, Palermo and Catania through Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, London, and Amsterdam.

Taking the Train:  Italy's train network is not one of Europe's finest.  If you are used to the comfort and efficiency of the Swiss or German rail networks, you will be in for a shock when you ride the rails in Italy.  On Italy's trains you are likely to encounter delays, old equipment, overcrowding, dingy stations, a lack of sufficient air conditioning, no help with your suitcases, and rude train personnel who have a strange habit of going on strike just when you need to take a trip.  That being said, your itinerary may call for using the EuroStar Italia trains for trips between the major cities or even a EuroNight train to arrive in Italy from France or Germany.  In these cases, we always recommend 1st Class seats to help mitigate some of the problems with overcrowding and comfort.

Driving Yourself:  Driving in Italy is an adventure that calls for courage, good reflexes, and patience.  If your travel plans call for driving yourself, you should be prepared to circle roundabouts more than once before making a decision as to where you are going, drive on streets and through archways that are only marginally wider than your car, and park in impossibly tight spaces.  Most rental cars in Italy have standard transmissions -- you will have to pay a premium for an automatic car.  Also, we always recommend renting the smallest car possible to help with parking and we always insist on a diesel car -- the price of diesel fuel ("gasolio" in Italian) is currently well over $6 per gallon and unleaded gasoline is much more expensive.  For driving times and point-to-point directions we recommend Via Michelin.

If all of this sounds daunting to you -- we work with first-rate professional drivers who can help take the stress out of getting around Italy.