We are going to Florence this summer and our travel agent is recommending flights through either Munich or Paris. Each only has about a 90 minute layover. That would be great for travel, but I'm concerned it won't be long enough to get through customs. I'm also assuming that we clear in our first stop. Thoughts?

TIA.

Why not fly to Rome and spend a night or two there. Then take high speed rail to Florence? If I remember it's just a few hour train ride.

90 minutes and changing planes (possibly to a different carrier) makes it almost certain your luggage will not arrive to your final destination at the same time as you do. Honestly, even a longer layover, I wouldn't count on baggage making it with you.

Where are you flying from? If you could do the direct route to Rome from Dallas, that plus taking the train would probably be your best option.

Most flights from the US are going to land pretty early in the morning, so customs shouldn't be too busy, but 90 min is still pretty short.

We flew through Amsterdam on KLM from IAH when we did this trip. We had a several hour layover in Amsterdam, and our flight to Rome was on a KLM regional plane (so no change of airlines).

If flying out of IAH, Frankfurt is actually a better option than Munich, if you're going to route through a German airport.

We are leaving from Houston in early June. Checked again and we have Frankfurt and Munic options. The issue is we have 9 days in Italy and doing Florence and north.

We looked at Rome and I don't think there were direct flights there either. I'd consider DFW direct to Rome and take the train.

FRA is a big airport and I wouldn't do anything less than 2 hrs for a transfer there.

Did this last year with that amount of time. Problem is you might not always get a gate at Frankfurt and have to deplane on the tarmac and ride shuttle busses that slow you down. Customs is efficient but then you go back through security. Made the connecting flight with a few mins to spare but bags didn't make it. You better off at Frankfurt though, imo. Overall one of the most efficient airports in the world, all things considered never had a problem there. 1.30 could be done, but any problem at either end you might be under the gun.

If you are going through Frankfurt, your options are United and Lufthansa. These two airlines codeshare. The Lufthansa flight typically leaves around 4 pm vs 6 for the United flight. This means you get to Frankfurt earlier in the morning and should have more options for flights to Florence.

What I found when booking our flights to Sicily last year was the Lufthansa and United websites show different itineraries. So a combo of flights available on Lufthansa might not show up in a United search and vice versa.

Our itinerary, I ultimately had to book through Google flights (linking to the United website) because neither airline website would show me the exact combo of flights I wanted. The travel agent I was working with could not see the flights I wanted anywhere.

Moral of the story - don't assume what the TA is offering is all that's available. Do some searching on your own to see if you can find options with a longer layover.

The Lufthansa to Frankfurt flight was also significantly cheaper than the United option for us last year. Like $2k vs almost $5k.

Frankfurt is a bigger airport and will have more options than Munich. You will also likely get a bigger plane to/from IAH if you go through Frankfurt (a 787, 777, or 747 vs a 767).

When I have a layover on international flights, I try for a longer layover. I'd rather walk around the airport to kill some time than miss my connection due to a delay on my inbound flight.

We flew Houston-DC-Rome on United. The train to Florence was awesome and easy and cheap. 90 minute layover after an International flight is very short IMO. Also...Florence is fantastic!!

Sounds like you need a new travel agent!

Thanks all. I'm going to rearrange some things.

Last time we went to Florence (from DFW) we flew to Rome and took the train to Florence and were there by 10:30am. Rome (FCO) has a train station in the airport and you can go directly from there to Florence in 2 hours. You can go direct or change trains in Rome, whichever works best based on your arrival time. We then rented a car in Florence and stayed in Tuscany and finished with a few days in Rome and flew direct back to DFW.

You could also do your layover stateside and then direct across the pond. For example IAH - JFK - MXP (Milan) since you're going to northern Italy. JFK - MXP is on Emirates A380 so bonus points for getting to fly something you normally would have to fly through Dubai for.

ITA Airways also has direct flights from Miami, JFK, Boston, etc. to Rome.
Just food for thought. We're doing our honeymoon in September and opted to do a day layover in NYC to see the sights before flying JFK - MXP.