Getting There

Location

Sant’Angelo is around 60 miles / 100 km (one hour’s drive) from Ancona, on the Adriatic coast, in the Le Marche region of Italy.

Flights

Ryanair flies daily from London Stansted (and now from Liverpool too) to Ancona, with fares ranging from £20 to £200+ return, depending on the season and the available deals (our cheapest flights so far were just 1 penny - plus taxes). Flight time is just over 2 hours. Best days to travel are mid week and (of course) outside school holidays.

Ancona has been a busy route ever since we started using it, and Ryanair has finally started increasing its margins. So you may want to shop around on price or flight times. Going south down the coast there is Pescara, in the Abbruzzo. That adds 15 minutes to the flight from Stansted and around 50 miles to the car journey

Going north, Easyjet has now entered the fray (2006) with late night flights from London Luton to Rimini - about 60 miles north of Ancona, so less than 2 hours drive to Casa Fontanelle. Just a little further north, Ryanair's 'out of town' airport policy works for Bologna/Forli, which is easy to get to, but about 100 miles further up the A14 Autostrada than Ancona.We've even flown from Venice/Treviso - it's about 400km up the coast, but worth considering if you want to see Venice or the Veneto. This airport is very small, but (like all the others) being extended thanks to all the tourists that Ryanair brings in. And there are three flights a day each way (2006).

We should all see Rome and die - so international visitors in particular may prefer to pick up a car at Rome-Fiumicino or Rome-Ciampino airports. It's a 4 hour drive across the mountains, either up the Via Flaminia and across the mountains at Foligno, or via the autostrada to L'Aquila and down towards the A14.

Other travel options

Whatever you choose, it pays to book early!

• Drive yourself from the channel ports - about 1500 miles, this is a long day's mad drive (it has been done, but we wouldn't recommend it!), two days for the more careful driver (we stopped over on Lake Luzern coming down, and near Mulhouse in France going back) or perhaps you'd prefer a longer and more leisurely trip one way at least.
• Take a train - you can get to Ancona or Civitanova on a fast train from Milan or Rome, and to Macerata on a slower train; see Trenitalia's website. But you'll still need to pick up a car eventually...
• Use a Motorail service - but every time we hear of one, it seems to get closed down
• Catch a ferry into Ancona from Croatia or Greece

Car Hire

Ancona (and all other airports) offer car hire from Hertz (who also have a deal with Ryanair) Avis, plus Maggiore and Europcar (and of course if you are brave enough you can get deals from Holiday Autos and other booking agencies). When you arrive at Ancona's new terminal, go straight out of the baggage hall and turn right to find the car hire desks.