Italy Travel

Portofino houses
Portofino houses

Italy by Air

There are several ways to visit Italy, and the internet is certainly an ideal way to start the search.

If you want to fly there, you can either book a flight directly through a specific airline website or what is known as an aggregator.

The idea behind aggregators (sometimes called comparison sites or price comparison sites) is to save the travelling client time and money by replacing visits to several websites with a visit to a single site, the aggregator’s, which searches for deals across multiple travel sites and displays the results in one place, making it easier to find the lowest rates or at least some of them. As is well known to anybody who has even watched the TV and seen the ads, aggregators exist in many other industries as well as travel, and some aggregators cover all or most sectors.

Not only you save time and money by booking flight and hotel, and possibly car hire (which you may require when arriving at the airport and to get to the airport for the return flight), together rather than reserving them separately, but also you are legally protected in case of unexpected problems because by law you are booking what is termed a “package holiday”, namely not just flight and accommodation (or car hire) not separately but with the same company at the same time or within a 24-hour period.

To find a dedicated page on air travel to Italy, see Flights to Italy, Save Money on Flights, Holidays

where you’ll find a search box for Expedia UK and links to CheapOair, Expedia UK, Trip.com, and other travel aggregators and price comparison sites.

 

Image by Pixabay

Anacapri, view from Villa San Michele
Anacapri, island of Capri, view from Villa San Michele

 

Italy by Car

You can use the car in two ways: either by making it the main means of transport and travelling to and across Italy with it, or, if you fly to Italy, by driving from the airport and back to the airport at the end of your stay, and perhaps using the car during your stay to visit places which would be difficult to reach and, in cases like the highly photogenic Amalfi Coast, almost inaccessible without a motor vehicle.

Holiday Autos

lets you compare prices from over 1,200 car rental agents across 30,000 locations in 174 countries.

You can make a search for the car you want from here:

 

Expedia UK

is not just for car hire but, as it’s a well known name, you probably already know that. It’s rather a comprehensive travel site for all sorts of needs, from flights to hotels, from car rentals to holiday packages, from holiday deals to guides and insurance.

The advantage of booking together more than one travel service is obviously not only the saving of time and hassle but also it’s cheaper. Here’s the link to Expedia cars, where you can choose only car, or car with hotel and/or flight and so on, if you wish:

Expedia UK Car Hire

Here is a dedicated page on Travel Italy by Car. Car Rental in Italy

Florence Cathedral - Brunelleschi's Dome Florence Cathedral – Brunelleschi’s Dome

Italy by Train

This is an increasingly popular option.

You can get an InterRail Pass if you have lived in Europe for at least 6 months, or a Eurail Pass if you live anywhere outside Europe.

And you can choose a Global Pass covering 29 countries, including Italy, or a One Country Pass covering 1 country, which can be Italy.

The disadvantage of the train versus the airplane is clearly the duration of the journey.

On the other hand, among the advantages of travelling by train to and within Italy rather than flying there is that the travel experience in itself is interesting and can be beautiful rather than boring, being immersed as you are in the places and landscapes you wish to visit and see rather than being suspended in mid-air (although obviously nobody is stopping you from exploring Italy by train once you got there rapidly by plane); you don’t have to stand in rather long queues; and you arrive in the middle of things, often the most central part of a city or town, and not at an airport in the middle of nowhere: actually, scratch that, Italy’s airports are often in the vicinity of lovely sightseeing and scenic landscapes.