Backtracking to Dublin From Athens takes a lot of time and could involve a fair amount of expense, definitely go for an open jaw flight if you can find a decent price. I would look for flights to/from Greece, too. I’d check basically anywhere in Italy to anywhere in Greece and rework your itinerary around the best flight you find. Ferry would be second choice.

What do you mean “eurail around Europe?” You’ll definitely want to take the train, but I’d seriously look at a single country pass for France and point to point tickets everywhere else.

Catch the Ferry from Bari Italy to Greece (don’t buy a room or a reserved seat, just get the deck pass…if entitles you to sit in an unreserved seat indoors should you chose to do so).

Don’t simply assume that Aer Lingus to Dublin is always going to be the cheapest destination from Chicago. Sales for summer haven’t started yet, so you may find a lower fare to somewhere else, and could potentially find a good deal on an open-jaw fare like oldlady suggested.

If you are keen to just get things solidified and can figure out an itinerary that doesn’t make it too costly/time consuming to land in/fly home from Dublin the $741 available now isn’t bad. I’d maybe grab a cheap flight to Italy early on, do part of Italy, head to Greece, back to Italy and finish the rest of your trip in a northwest direction heading back towards Dublin. I do think you’ll be able to find an open-jaw fare that’s at least close to that Aer Lingus fare once sales start.

augustin25, I don’t know about all the added flying of starting in Italy first then Greece then Italy. So, basically, I figure I can either start in Greece, then fly into Italy, then work up towards France and onto Dublin. Sounds reasonable. Or like I have it scheduled, fly into Dublin, work southeast through France and into Italy, fly to Greece and leave from there.

In response to oldlady, I mentioned eurail through Europe because this site suggested getting a 3-country pass for France, Italy and Greece. If it is less costly to just pay city to city, I will do that. Why do you suggest getting it for France alone though?

Thanks for the prompt responses.

Point-to-point tickets in France are ghastly. A pass pretty much ALWAYS helps there. But in Italy and Greece, not so much (Italy p2p is often cheaper than using a day on a railpass, Greece you don’t use many trains because it’s a series of islands. it’s usually bus or boat, or flying)

On my Greece leg of the trip I don’t foresee a lot of island hopping, but I could be wrong. I want to see as much of it and the other places as I can but without feeling rushed.
Am I spending too much time in one or more locations that I could spend some time somewhere else on my list or nearby somewhere on my list?

With the itinerary you have planned, the only place I’d consider shaving time from is Venice.

We just want to see it as it’s on my girlfriend’s list of places she wants to see before she dies. Kind of a surprise since she doens’t know much about my plans of this trip. So shorten time there, right.

Thanks.

Not too much, I meant take off one day from Venice if you need a day somewhere else.