Flying from Ireland to Italy

[artnbarb]

Regardless of how we spend our time in Ireland, we'll still need to fly to Italy afterwards. In the past we flew BA (because of the luggage allowance), going thru London, then on to FCO. Recently a friend told me that Alitalia flies out of Perugia, to Milan. He was taking that flight, which also included a checked bag, then flying from Milan to Dublin with Aer Lingus. This got to me wondering if I could fly DUB -Milan - Perugia next summer, but of course it's not that simple.

For now, the flight to Milan (Yes, I realize there are 2 airports in Milan, and it looks like Alitalia flies to Perugia from both of them, but probably on different days) arrives at Linate around 11 a.m. and the flight to PEG departs at 11:20, so that connection won't work. I know nothing about either of the Milan airports, but if I'm flying in and out of Linate, perhaps we could spend the night, go into the city during the day, then fly out the next morning. I see that Linate is quite a distance from Milan itself, is there somewhere nearby where we might better spend the day?

Or, if anyone has any other suggestions for flying from Dublin to Perugia, I'm all ears.

 

[Andrew]

I'll study the matter more when I have more time, but Linate is the close-in airport; Malpensa is the distant one. If you're breaking the trip up in Milan, is there much reason to fly rather than take the train to Perugia? There's a direct train taking 3.5 hours, arriving Perugia 10.20 p.m., which may not be ideal, but there are connecting options all day in a little over 4 hours, which I think could compare favorably to the time to get to the airport in time, etc.

 

[Ian Sutton]

In addition, watch out for Bergamo - sometimes described as Milan, but much further away than Malpensa!

If you travel light, you could fly with *that Irish airline to Stansted from Dublin and change there for Perugia. Not that I would in any way recommend it, unless it makes massive logistical sense.

* thou shalt not speak their name in polite company

 

[artnbarb]

NO, we'll have too much luggage to fly *that* airline (which I despise as well!), but taking the train won't work either - we'll want/need to rent a car and I'm not going to ask someone to pick us up late at night, then return the next day to retrieve the rental car. I'm also not sure how practical a non-direct train would be, assuming we'll each have 2 bags of whatever size/weight. In the end I may just have to fly into FCO, I was just trying something different - or hoping to, anyway!

 

[Tina]

I'm not clear if your objective is to include a day in Milan or get to Perugia as easily as possible. Both Malpensa and Linate are well connected to the centre of Milan but you'd be better off sleeping in an airport hotel rather than dragging your luggage around.
If Milan isn't an objective Aer Lingus fly direct Dublin to Fiumicino, then a two hours and a quarter by car to Perugia.
Or Ryanair do Dublin to London Stansted and then Stansted to Perugia although probably there won't be a big choice of flights for the latter. You can simply pay extra for larger suitcases in the hold.
It's easy to criticize Ryanair but for flights between minor airports they're very useful. Before Ryanair to visit my parents in the UK I had a four hour car trip to Malpensa, flight by BA or Alitalia to Gatwick, another 3 or 4 hours or even more to my parents by train, with all the expense involved. Now with Milan Bergamo to Bristol I can be there in half a day.....

 

[artnbarb]

No, I have no desire to spend a day in Milan, but I will check out the DUB-FCO, flight, thanks!

 

[Andrew]

Yes, I would say that flying DUB-FCO works best. Flying from an Italian mainland airport to Perugia only makes sense if it's a perfectly timed connection from a longer flight, and even then I'd worry about something going wrong.

 

[artnbarb]

Direct flights are always best! Somehow I missed that Aer Lingus had the direct DUB-FCO flight, so that solves all the problems!