Tuscany - The Basics - Part 2

Tuscany - The Basics - Part 2 cont.

If you book well in advance you can sometimes find fares for as little as £45 return for off-peak flights, however these low prices always seem to apply to very early morning or very late evening flights. If you go for a more reasonable flight time then prices rise to around the region of £150–200 return for the summer season. However this is only as long as you make your booking well in advance. If you book a last minute trip, which is anything less than two weeks before departure, take care. The saving you might be making on accommodation will be lost on the air fares. In fact in cases like this you are often better checking out on a full-service airline as the overall cost will be less.

There are two full service airlines that operate out of the UK and which service Italy. British Airways has flights to Pisa several times a day out of both London Gatwick and Manchester. Alitalia, the Italian national airline, also flies to Pisa but these flights connect via Milan or Rome. A return flight with either of these two airlines from London to Pisa in low season will cost around £120. The prices then increase with demand to between £150 and £300 in high season with an advance purchase. There has however been some concern about the future of Alitalia. At the moment things seem OK but the airline is not without troubles. Given this situation you should watch for special offers. These have started to appear more because of the competition from the no-frills airlines. As long as you buy your ticket through a proper agent then you should have no worries.

Trains

If you have the time then travelling by train to Italy is a great experience. It will not save you any money over other forms of travel but the experience of the journey is a pleasure in its own right. If you have enough time then you can plan to break up your journey with stops on route. Planning the choice of routes and fares is a whole exercise in itself. The most straight forward route is to take the Eurostar from London to Paris. At this point you have two main choices depending on your final destination. You could take either the “Palatino” overnight service from Paris to Florence, via Milan or take the high-speed TGV from Paris to Milan, and change there for Florence or another location. You should expect a total journey time of around 17hours depending on the option you choose but advance booking is essential. If you’re thinking of this as part of any even larger trip then a European Rail Pass should be the first thing to check out.

Continued in Part 3