My family of four just took a 3-week European vacation. Flights, trains, rental cars, accommodations, and prearranged activities were under $2000. Rome was our first city in this summer adventure.

Flights / Transportation: One-way tickets were booked from Kansas City (MCI) to JFK to position to Rome. This positioning flight saved me 100,000 American Airlines miles and was well worth it! I paid for the positioning flight with Southwest miles and our Companion Passes. The positioning flight for four cost 17,741 Southwest miles and $22. Well worth it!

We flew nonstop from JFK to Rome Leonardo da Vinci International. It was an overnight flight. I booked economy tickets and used my American Airlines status to upgrade to Economy Plus with the Platinum status I earned through the American Airlines shopping portal. The extra legroom was much appreciated during our overnight flight.  

The total cost for four tickets from JFK to Rome was nearly 120,000 AA miles and $25 in fees. Our return flight was from Paris to MCI (KC) and was 104,000 AA miles and just under $300 in taxes. Totally doable if you ask me!

Our Airbnb host arranged for a car to pick us up at the airport for 60 euros and bring us to our apartment to drop off our bags. After flying overnight, I am so glad I spent this money on the ease of transportation.

Stay: We stayed at an Airbnb in Rome’s Campo di Fiori neighborhood. This was perfect and put us right in the heart of Rome. I took advantage of a 25% bonus Chase had with Airbnb in 2022. This bonus has since ended, but not to worry, there are several ways to use points to take care of vacation rentals that I’ve laid out here in Vacation Rentals on Points.

Fun: We had an action-packed time in Rome. A few of our big activities were booked through Viator in order to take advantage of 10X points through the American Airlines shopping portal on top of the points earned from spending.

We pre-purchase Vatican Museums and Colosseum tickets through Viator to skip the lines and earn a ton of points by using a shopping portal when visiting Viator. Our Colosseum tour included the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Once we reached the top of Palatine Hill, we were treated to a stunning panoramic view of Rome. No wonder the richest of the rich used to love up there!

Our favorite activity in Rome was a food tour booked through Viator of the Trastevere neighborhood, followed by a pasta-making class. We were led through little Roman shops like Suppli Roma, Antica Caciara cheese shop, Oteleg gelato shop, and Eggs Restaurant. I highly recommend this tour. It was worth every dime!

We learned to make pasta from eggs and flour during the pasta-making class. Once we had cut our pasta, the chef at the restaurant hosted the class in cooked our pasta, and we enjoyed lunch.

Eat: We ate well during our time in Rome. We had all the carbs!!! So delicious. Here are some of our favorites. Supplizio had one of our favorite Roman treats, suppli. Antico Forno Roscioli Bakery, Pizza Florida for quick-cut pizza, and about ten other places!

Final thought:  For as long as I’ve been a mother, I have thought I would need to save for years and years to be able to take my children to Europe before they graduate from high school. Points and miles made this once-in-a-lifetime trip happen much sooner for us, and now I know we can afford to go back to Europe and see more of this beautiful, history-rich continent.

Cards that made this trip possible