Getting to Italy

The increase in low-cost flights has revolutionized travel to and within Italy. Flights are cheaper and many provincial airports are now open to international flights from major European cities. Arriving at a small airport, where queues for immigration and baggage are short, and where a hire car can easily be collected (often at a discount rate through the airline company) is generally the best start to a driving holiday in Italy. Travellers from outside Europe may find it cheaper to fly via London to take advantage of the many low-cost flights available from the UK.

Arriving by Air

Alitalia’s main hub is Rome Fiumicino with Milan’s twin airports of Malpensa and Linate functioning as its secondary hubs. There are direct Alitalia flights from London Heathrow to all three airports, but no direct flights from any UK provincial airports. Alitalia also serves about 25 domestic airports within Italy.

British Airways flies from London Gatwick to Bari, Catania, Genoa, Naples, Pisa, Rome Fiumicino, Turin, Venice and Verona. From London Heathrow there are flights to Milan’s twin airports and to Venice. BA also fly from Manchester and Birmingham to Milan airports and Rome via London Heathrow.

From New York JFK, Alitalia flies to Milan Malpensa, with all other US flights going to Rome Fiumicino. Those travelling from Australia may find the best deals are often with Alitalia’s business partner, Etihad, which flies to Rome Fiumicino via Abu Dhabi, or with Emirates which flies to both Rome andMilan via Dubai.

Many of the low-cost airlines such as Ryanair, Norwegian and easyJet fly from London Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and other regional UK airports to provincial Italian airports. If there are only flights to Rome from your local airport, you may find the best deals for onward flights to a provincial Italian airport from a low-cost airline such as blu-express, Jet 2 and Meridiana.

DK

Decorative ceramic tile entrance to a perfumery in Capri, Campania

Italian Airports

Italy’s system of naming its airports can be confusing to the uninitiated. Airports are named not only after the nearest major city, and perhaps the nearest village as well, but usually after a famous Italian, too. Rome Fiumicino, for example, is also known as Leonardo da Vinci, Palermo is known as both Punta Raisi and Falcone Borsellino (after the two Sicilian judges killed by the Mafia in 1992). Note that on road signs, an airport may be referred to by any, or a combination of its names or sometimes only the airport’s international code is used.

DK

Modern architecture at Catania Airport, Sicily

DK

Alitalia airplane at Rome, Fiumicino

Arriving by Rail

Countless services (including many sleepers) link Italy with the major European cities. Connections from Paris (and London, via Eurostar) run to Turin, Milan, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Pisa, Rome and Naples.

Rail services also operate from German, Swiss and other northern European cities to Milan, Turin, Venice and Verona. There are also direct services from Vienna, Spain and the south of France.

Low-cost airlines have forced the train companies to be a little more competitive. Special discount fares are often available online. As the trains can be extremely busy during peak periods (Friday and Sunday evenings, the Christmas and Easter holidays and during July and August), it is advisable to make reservations if you intend to travel at those times.

There are motorail train services to Alessandria and Livorno from the Netherlands. There is no motorail connection from France although you can travel to Nice via motorail and drive across the Italian border.

DK

High-speed train

Arriving by Road

Most roads into Italy from the rest of Europe involve Alpine crossings by tunnel or mountain passes. The exceptions are the approach from Slovenia in the northeast (on the A4 motorway) and the route along the French Riviera that enters Italy as the A10 motorway at Ventimiglia.

The most popular route from Geneva and southeast France is via the Mont Blanc tunnel and A5 motorway, entering Italy close to Aosta and Turin. Another busy approach (from Switzerland) uses the St Bernard Pass and Tunnel. The main route from Austria and southern Germany crosses the Brenner Pass and goes down to Verona on the A22 motorway via Trento and the Adige valley. Most motorways are toll-roads; pay as you exit them (see Driving in Italy).

Travellers from the UK could take a car to one of the French Channel ports by ferry or on the Eurotunnel rail shuttle. Once there, the drive to Genoa in the north of Italy takes around 12 hours (a journey of some 1,900 km/1,200 miles). The AA and Michelin both offer reliable route planners on www.theaa.com and www.viamichelin.co.uk.

Ferry Services

A well-developed network of ferries and hydrofoils links Italy with the rest of Europe and North Africa.

There are also good connections between mainland Italy and its offshore islands. Moby Ferries offers routes between Italy’s main ports and Sardinia. Sardinia Ferries has a fast service connecting Livorno with Golfo Aranci in six hours and Tirrenia offers a similar service from Civitavecchia and Genoa to Olbia. Liberty Lines and Siremar run throughout the year from Milazzo to the Aeolian Islands, while GNV operates ferry routes between Palermo, Naples and Genoa. If you plan to travel in July or August, book well ahead. Low season services are less frequent.

DK

Ferries at Naples port in Campania, in front of the volcano Vesuvius

Getting to Italy | CONTENTS

DIRECTORY

Arriving by Rail

Eurotunnel

08443 35 35 35 (UK)

www.eurotunnel.com

Eurostar

www.eurostar.com

08432 186 186 (UK)+

44 01233 617 575 (outside UK)

Rail Europe

www.raileurope.com

08448 485 848 (UK)

1-800-622-8600 (US)

1-800-361-RAIL (Canada)

Motorail

Autoslaap Trein

www.autoslaaptrein.nl

arriving by Road

The AA

www.theaa.com

Michelin

www.viamichelin.com

Ferry Services

GNV

www.gnv.it

+ 39 01 0209 4591

Liberty Lines

www.libertylines.it

0923 022022

Moby Ferries

www.moby.it

800 804020

Sardinia Ferries

www.corsica-ferries.co.uk

+ 33 495 329 595

Tirrenia

www.tirrenia.it

+ 39 02 2630 2804

Siremar

For routes between Naples, Reggio Calabria and Sicily and between the Sicilian mainland and the Aeolian Islands from Milazzo.

www.siremar.it

Other Useful Sites

These websites list all the major Italian ferry companies and offer information on routes, departure times and prices.

www.directferries.com

www.aferry.co.uk

..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset
18.206.83.160