Maxi-Pedia Forum

Hi
Me and my husband are planning to travel to Paris and Italy on 1st may, 2010. However, due to the volcanic disruption, we are planning to postpone our trip for a week but the price of the tickets have become too high so we were thinking to enter via Italy and stay the major part of our journey and then proceed to Paris and stay for 5 days and then depart from there hopefully by then the condition will improve otherwise we can leave from Italy. Now the issue is we have got schengen  visa from French consulate and t.he visa is multiple entry and valid for all schengen countries. will we have any problem with the Italian authorities? Please advise cos we don't ant to get stuck anywhere. Thanks
JAYEETA
INDIA

Hi,

Greetings to India. If your visa is multiple entry and valid for all schengen countries, then you can enter the Schengen zone (http://www.euro-dollar-currency.com/schengen_zone_members.htm) through any state and leave through any state. Example, not everyone goes to Paris by airplane, if you were going to Paris from Croatia by train, you would actually go through Italy first. The only catch is that you should spend the most of your time in the country which issued your visa. That means you might want to have for example some Paris hotel reservations at hand in case the border patrol asks, so you can prove that Paris is your "main destination". Or, if you do not want to go to Paris at all, then just go to some town in France just accross the state line for a few days and make it appear like it is your main destination (Nice, Marseille? - nice places). But I think even if you did not have any hotel reservations at hand, border patrols would understand your change in your plans (the volcano thing is really mess here). Good site explaining a lot about Schengen visa: Schengen visa (http://www.euro-dollar-currency.com/schengen_visa.htm)

Have safe travel.

D.

PS: No need to post twice.
PS: How do you get to Italy? You say ticket price is too high, but you come from India .. I would not say there is any significant difference in airfare price between Italy and Paris, or is it?

Hi
Thanks so much for your reply.
If I postpone our journey from 1st may to 15th may then I have to pay nearly $800 extra. so if I stick to my original plan to travel on 1st may, I can save that money. Our previous plan was to enter France by emirates, stay there for 5 days and then proceed to Italy by train and then depart from Rome to Delhi(India). I would love to visit Paris , in fact I have hotel vouchers for Paris ready but cos of the uncertainty, the change in the plan.

I think there is too much panic over the volcano. Travel is back to normal, the ash cloud is gone. Plus, both France and Italy are pretty much to the south, they get affected less than the northern part of Europe.

Have a good travel. I hope everything is fine, as you see no more news about the volcano, everything back to normal.