Rome Champions League flight prices soar to £850

British football fans continue to book flights to Rome despite Chelsea's defeat in last night's Champions League Semi-Final.

Flight searches to Rome were up 596 per cent yesterday compared to the same time last week according to travelsupermarket.com. Prices between London and Rome now top £850 with some carriers.

Fans booking flights between Gatwick and Rome for May 27 returning a day or two later are being offered fares of £847 with easyJet from Gatwick - eight times higher than the average fare between the two cities for this time of year.

"These easyJet flight have reached their peak - they are astronomical," Bob Atkinson, travel expert at travelsupermarket.com told Times Online, "these are higher than BA's Club Europe and full Economy prices."

Flights to Rome from London with BA are now around £750 and Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool flight searches are showing little or no availability.

The busiest time for flight searches so far, according to travelsupermarket.com, was Tuesday at 10pm, just after the whistle was blown on the Manchester United/Arsenal Semi-Final. At that point, searches for Rome flights were up 1,367 per cent on the same time the week before.

Atkinson adds: "Between 8pm-9pm searches dropped to 300 per cent up on last week, then searches rose dramatically after that to 600 per cent, presumably when Chelsea fans thought they had won it. The searches stayed up at that level after the match though, which could have been Manchester fans still looking for tickets. It didn't drop off until midnight.

"Searches are still running at 600 per cent up today."

Another flights website, skyscanner.net, also reported Rome flight searhces up around 300 per cent from both London and Manchester. Its analysts say searches dropped during the game - "maybe suggesting the Chelsea fans were not quite as confident as their Manchester rivals," a spokeswoman told Times Online.

Skyscanner.net travel editor, Sam Baldwin, says fans can still save money by booking indirect flights, for example, a Gatwick-Madrid-Rome ticket is currently coming in at £272, although there's a connection time of six hours. Alternatively, fans can fly to Florence, Naples and Pisa from around £229.

Hotels in Rome continue to show good availability, despite searches being up 110 per cent on Tuesday and up 141 per cent last night. Rooms are still available from £80 according to travelsupermarket.com.

Rates remain competitive thanks to Rome’s buoyant hotel stock – “cities in general have taken a hammering this year because people aren’t taking city breaks,” said Atkinson, “so there is availability where there’s stock, but I’d expect hotel prices to start climbing very quickly.”

"I think 30,000-40,000 Man U fans will make the trip," he said, "and even more from Barcelona."

Getting there – the travelsupermarket.com guide to Rome

Direct flights

These carriers operate to Rome’s two airports, Ciampino and Fiumicino, from around the UK and Ireland:

Easyjet – Gatwick, Bristol and Newcastle

Ryanair – Dublin, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Stansted, Shannon

British Airways – Heathrow, Gatwick

Alitalia – Heathrow

Aer Lingus – Dublin

Jet2 – Manchester, Leeds/Bradford

In addition there are many flights from all over the UK to other Italian cities including Bologna, Milan, Venice and Naples. Onward travel to Rome is easy either using the extensive rail network – book tickets via www.trenitalia.com – or by hiring a car.

There are also flight departures with the main European carriers such as Air France, Lufthansa and KLM to Rome via European cities such as Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

Train

Rome is easily reached via rail departing from London and connecting in Paris for onward travel to Italy. Check with Rail Europe for details.

Hotels

There will certainly be a lack of hotel rooms available in the city, so using a search engine such as travelsupermarket.com means you can search availability across a range of hotels in Rome. Prices per night currently start at over £60.

As well as looking in Rome itself, search outside the city and travel in by rail, car or bus. The coastal area from Civitavecchia down to Anzio is a good option. There are also many campsites that can be used in easy access of the city.