Cheapest time to fly to Italy: tips for travel planning with good prices and weather

A sultry vacation on the Amalfi Coast, a busy Roman vacation, a stunning shopping spree in Milan... There are many more reasons to go on vacation to Italy. But without good planning, this trip will be quite costly. If you expect to limit yourself to a small budget, it is worth finding out in advance the cheapest time to fly to Italy.

Every year, millions of people from all over the world choose this destination. In 2019, approximately 100 million people traveled to Italy. After a few years of pandemic, the number has of course decreased significantly, but already in 2022 it reached 56 million. So if Italy is in your plans for your next vacation, before you pack your bags, take care of the tickets.

When is the best time to fly to Italy

To find a favorable time to fly to Italy, you can rely on statistics and advice from experts in the travel industry. Scott Keys, founder and chief expert of Going.com, shared some tips with Travel + Leisure on how to choose the cheapest time to fly to Italy. According to him, this is best done in January and February. For tourism in the U.S. and Europe, this period is a relative lull: the number of travelers decreases, from which airlines are forced to offer lower fares to fill flights.

This time can be considered the best time to fly to Italy: it is normal practice to book round-trip airfare for less than $400. For example, on Going, you could find flights to Italy from New York for $360, from San Francisco for $434, and from Miami for $380. Good bargain tickets are available not only from the biggest transportation hubs, but also from smaller airports, such as Cleveland for $581.

In addition to less demand for flights, travelers can save money on lodging and other expenses between January and March in Italy. Since it's winter here during this time, visiting the country will give you a unique experience - museums and historical sites without the crowds.

Book the off-season

If the primary issue for you is not the price of tickets, but precisely the possibility of avoiding the influx of tourists, the expert recommends planning your trip in the off-season. This applies not only to Italy, but to any European country and most other destinations. But you will not only get tourist-free attractions, but also the best time for an inexpensive flight, not counting winter travel. From March through May and September through November, you'll be able to find deals from airlines with very favorable fares.

Also, while planning your trip, browse resources that track weather conditions in different years, such as WeatherSpark. After all, you not only need to choose the most favorable time to fly, but also the time that is comfortable for your planned activities in Italy. For example, during the late spring off-season and early fall, temperatures here can reach 60-80 degrees. During the summer months, some regions of Italy become uncomfortable for many travelers due to the heat. In southern cities like Naples and Rome, temperatures over 100 degrees are recorded more often, so heat-sensitive people should avoid the summer peak in these regions and opt for more stable shoulder seasons.

Another good opportunity, like flying cheaply to Italy, for travelers from the U.S. comes at Thanksgiving. According to Scott Keyes, domestic flights to the U.S. are highly overpriced during this period, but few Americans choose this date to travel abroad. In Italy, however, Thanksgiving is not a holiday, so there are no increases in ticket prices, lodging and other costs. In the week of Thanksgiving, it's cheaper to fly to Milan than to Minneapolis, for example. But in late November you can catch the start of Christmas fairs in some regions of Italy, when the festive atmosphere is already present and prices are not yet at their peak.