The Cheapest Airports To Fly Into Italy

For those traveling to Italy on a shoestring budget, it's wise to look for savings when booking flights. The average round-trip airfare between the U.S. and Italy (for both direct and indirect flights) is $1,454 according to popular booking site Booking.com, but actual airfares can vary significantly depending on a few different factors. These can include the number of stopovers, your U.S. departure city or Italian arrival city, how far in advance you book your flights, what times and days of the week you purchase your tickets as well as travel, and whether your travel days are in peak, low, or shoulder season. 

To identify which airports in Italy are the cheapest to fly into from the U.S., we conducted an analysis holding the other factors mentioned above constant. Using Google Flights, we compared non-stop round-trip flights between the most popular departure city in the U.S. — New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) — and airports in Italy, with a departure date of June 1 and a return date of June 15, which is at the beginning of peak season. We identified five cities in Italy that receive direct flights from JFK on our chosen travel dates, and we ranked the airfares to these cities from least to most expensive below. Note that an airline's fares for a specific flight can fluctuate monthly, weekly, and even over the course of a single day. Therefore, when interpreting these results, focusing more on overall trends versus the specific dollar values of tickets will be most useful. 

Milan — one of the world's most famous shopping cities, especially for high-end luxury goods — is not normally associated with budget travel. Yet our analysis suggests that for Americans, Milano Malpensa Airport may be the cheapest entry point into Italy. We identified two round-trip flights from JFK: one on Emirates for $970 and one on American Airlines for $975. Both of these are direct overnight flights, with travel times of around eight hours. Even if this is out of your budget at the moment, we were pleasantly surprised to find these two direct, round-trip flights under $1,000 right at the start of peak season, which is around 30% less than the average airfare of $1,454 quoted on Booking.com. 

Besides being the least expensive entry point in our analysis, Milan is also a great base from which to explore the many wonders of Northern Italy. Fast trains zip from Milan to other vibrant Northern Italian cities, including Turin, Venice, Bologna, and Florence. From Milan, it's also only a few hours' drive to Italy's spectacular lake region (e.g., Lakes Como, Garda, and Maggiore) and the amazing Aosta Valley ski resorts. On the Italo and Frecciarossa fast trains, you can even get from Milan to Rome in less than three hours. However, book your train tickets in advance to get the best prices. Otherwise, you may find that any savings realized through the cheap plane ticket are quickly eaten up by the cost of train tickets to other parts of Italy. 

Rome came in at number two in our analysis. Using the same June travel dates, we found several flights from JFK into Rome's Fiumicino "Leonardo da Vinci" Airport that were just a nudge above $1,000. One was on Norse Atlantic Airways for $1,085, another on Ita Airways for $1,151, one on Delta Airlines for $1,151, and one on American Airlines for $1,179. These are all direct overnight flights that clock about eight hours of in-flight time. 

One advantage of flying into Rome, then, is not just accessing cheap airfares but also having the most airline options of any city on our list. This gives travelers more opportunities to use frequent flier miles and greater flexibility in terms of scheduling flights. For example, the flights from JFK on June 1 have departure times ranging from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Moreover, if you want to be gobsmacked by ancient history starting the minute you get off the plane, choose Rome as your arrival city. Seriously, if there's a more glorious way to begin an Italian vacation, we can't think of one. Worried about fitting it all in while visiting Rome? Do what traveler influencer Rick Steves calls the "Caesar Shuffle" to visit the most iconic sites super efficiently. 

The third city on our list may be one you've never heard of: Catania, which is on Sicily, Italy's largest island. We found a non-stop flight from JFK to Catania's Vincenza Bellini Airport on Delta Airlines for $1,285. This overnight flight is slightly longer than the others we identified, at nine hours and 10 minutes. 

Centrally located on Sicily's eastern coast next to volcanic Mt. Etna, Catania is a great starting point for exploring all that Sicily has to offer, from its fascinating Greek and Roman ruins and stunning seaside towns like Taormina to its bewitching Sicilian capital of Palermo –– where street vendors dole out delicacies like Sicilian focaccia and fried rice–cheese balls known as arancini. Catania is also a beautiful city to visit in southern Italy's fall season. 

From Catania, you can also access a lesser-known but hauntingly beautiful Italian region known as Calabria, which is at the toe of Italy's "boot," via a 90-minute ferry ride. Hopefully, by 2031, you'll be able to drive from Sicily to Calabria over the Strait of Messina bridge, which is predicted to be the longest suspension bridge in the world when it is completed. This development should open up a whole new realm of possibilities for travel and commerce. 

Jumping back up to the north, the next city to emerge in our analysis is Venice. We discovered that Delta Airlines offers a non-stop, round-trip flight from JFK to Venice Marco Polo Airport for $1,499. Notably, this fare is 50% more expensive than the cheapest one to nearby Milan. Yet, it's still fairly reasonable for a peak-season flight. At eight hours and 35 minutes, this overnight flight is a bit longer than the ones into Milan or Rome, but shorter than the one into Catania.

Even though it may be a slightly more expensive way to go, starting an Italian vacation in Venice could never be a bad thing because the city is utterly unlike any other destination in the country. Besides boasting resplendent architecture and art along with mesmerizing canals dotted with gondolas, Venice happens to be a great city for Italian history buffs. It's also a great jumping-off point for hiking trips in the Dolomites or wine tourism in the rolling hills of Veneto's wine region. One disadvantage, though, is that Venice is not centrally located. Given its location on the northeastern coast, it's actually much closer to most of Northern Croatia than it is to Rome. 

Lastly, we leap to one additional destination back down south, this time on the western coast — Naples. Our analysis revealed a non-stop, round-trip flight from JFK to Naples International Airport on Delta Airlines for $1,697. Among all the direct flights we identified, this one is the most expensive. Like the others, it's an overnight flight. Its flight time of nine hours is slightly longer than the flights to Milan, Rome, and Venice but a little shorter than the one to Catania.

Besides the higher airfare, one disadvantage of choosing Naples as an entry point is it's pretty far south — a 4.5-hour ride on the fast train from Milan in Northern Italy. The train ticket for this cross-country ride can be as costly as an airfare depending on how far in advance you purchase it. That said, when focusing your travels on southern Italy, there are a multitude of reasons to choose Naples as your arrival destination. It's a land of magnificent monuments and some of the best cuisine that Italy has to offer. It's also a perfect base for exploring the Amalfi coast, especially the nearby islands of Capri, Ischia, and Procida. This area also has one of Italy's most famous volcanoes, Mt. Vesuvius, which was responsible for the destruction of Pompeii in 79 AD.