Perche

A not uncommon mistake. There is historical Venice, and then the region of Venice, which is more or less on the mainland, and has nothing to do with the Venice that people want to go to, with canals, gondolas, etc. The part of Venice that is on the mainland is, to put it politely, a dump. There are two stops in Venice, Venezia Mestre, and Venezia Santa Lucia. No reason to ever stop at Venezia Mestre unless you are visiting relatives there. Santa Lucia is the Venice that people want to visit.

boboqui

I also want to mention the Sheraton MXP, which was very convenient for our early morning flight.

MXP is one of the nicest airports I've ever been, so much so that upon arriving at EWR we took notice of how ugly it is, and then came sad realization that this is my home airport!

Perche

Ditto on the Sheraton MXP. The other "airport hotels" at MXP, including the Hilton, are actually fairly far away and require a shuttle. The Sheraton is attached to the airport. By avoiding waiting for shuttle and taking a fairly long ride you can usually save 45 minutes or more off by staying at the Sheraton MXP.

ckendall

Yes, the Sheraton MXP (along with the Sheraton CDG) is a regular stop on the way out of Malpensa. Not a great hotel, but so much better than the alternatives, especially when leaving before say 10 or 11 am. There's nothing quite like checking out of the hotel, walking through the weird passageway and taking the elevator up to the gate in about five minutes total time relative to a shuttle/taxi with an uncertain schedule and possible traffic.

jerryhung

I have a 6:40am flight out of MXP to FRA, and booked Sheraton MXP (7000 SPG points, or $379 Euro) vs. staying in Milan and taking a super early MXP Express into MXP

edit: $379 EURO for 1-night, crazy, must be the convention in town causing that

Kadence

we say that every time we come back into EWR no matter where we go. Going to Milan next week so thanks for your tips

dogloverjb

After reading about the MXP Sheraton I also booked it for my last night. I opened the Hyatt CC in December and got 2 free nights at PH Milan and then will move to Sheraton for my last night. It was only 100 euros on their website. All in all the 3 night trip is costing $430 (300 for airfare for 2 + Sheraton) plus spending money. What a great Valentine's Day present for both of us!

mtvesuvius

I am going to be in Milan on April 5th (from around 10am and overnighting before a flight the next morning), and was looking at options to book Last Supper tickets. Currently it seems the official site and many of the aggregator sites are sold out for that day, apparently leaving me only with options to book tours for between $80-$90. Are there any tours that people have taken and would recommend, or any that I should be sure to avoid? Since I'll only be in Milan for a day, I'm not terribly opposed to the idea of a tour, but I do wish there were a cheaper option available. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

arubalad

My wife and I are also going for a week in May, thinking of going to Corsica or Sardnia for a few days Have previously been to Milan. Any thoughts advice?

Andu

End or beginning of May? I don't see Corsica or Sardegna a 1-2 days destination...and beginning of May might be quite rainy. Why don't you go instead at Portofino or 5 Terre? You can take the train directly from Milan and spend a nice day at the beach/ on the boat enjoying a fantastic view.

beltway

A couple of recommendations based on a just-completed trip:

1. The Boschi Di Stefano Museum: Just north of Porta Venezia is this little jewel, a flat filled with 20th century Italian art & furnishings. Come for the Cubism, stay for the Art Deco. Free admission.
   http://www.fondazioneboschidistefano.it/ws/en/
2. Casa Galimberti: If you like Art Nouveau, then you'll love Casa Galimberti, an exemplar of the "Liberty Milanese" style. Situated just east of Porta Venezia (via Malpighi 3), the facade features elaborate stone & wrought iron balconies and some remarkable large-scale ceramic decorations. http://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Galimberti
   Note: I should emphasize that Casa Galimberti is not a museum. The only public access to the interior is the restaurant on the ground floor, Panino Giusto (where you can get a beer and an excellent grilled sandwich at a decent price).
3. Pandenus: Bakery by day, bar by night. The aperitivo (8€/drink) was the best we had, featuring several varieties of pizza; frittata; veal sausage in gravy with rice or couscous; sliced mortadella; and assorted fresh fruit/crudit�s. Even on a rainy Sunday night, the one at via Tadino 15 (just west of Corso Buenos Aires) was packed, so go early. http://www.pandenus.it/index-eng.html

All of these are a short walk (5-10 minutes) from each other & convenient to the Porta Venezia subway stop.

Although it's mentioned in a lot of guidebooks, I'll add that the aperitivo at the nearby h club (in the Sheraton Diana Majestic on viale Piave) is also excellent in terms of selection & quality. However, the prezzi are quite high -- 12€/drink at the bar, and more (16€?) for a table -- so be mindful. (Prices on the website appear to be out of date, as they do not match those posted in the bar this past weekend.)

ckendall

Pandenus is great; I have had breakfast and weekend/brunch lunch as well as apertivos there and all were good. I will check out the two museums. I have been to the other three house museums of Milan http://www.casemuseomilano.it/en/ and they were all good but the tours are better if you speak Italian.

beltway

I should clarify that Casa Galimberti is not, so far as I can discern, a museum. Still, the exterior of the building is worth seeing. In fact, the area around the intersection of via Malpighi & via Melzo has several interesting Art Nouveau and Beaux Arts facades, although the others aren't nearly as extravagant.

Casa Museo Boschi di Stefano is largely self-guided. There are docents, but there is no tour per se. Each of the 10 rooms has a set of laminated guides in Italian identifying the various artworks, which are organized either by period or by individual artist.

You've mentioned elsewhere that you're in the area regularly. Have you been to Da Oscar? We went for dinner & enjoyed it; the spaghetti alla carbonara was excellent. (The various depictions of Il Duce are a little unsettling, although the fact that one was prominently juxtaposed with a picture of Elvis made it hard to take things too seriously.)

ckendall

Thanks for the clarifications. The Poldi Pezzoli is more or less a regular museum but the other two houses are only available through guided tours. I have been to Da Oscar a few times and you may have seen Oscar himself emerge from the kitchen as a big guy with a shaved head wearing some sort of outrageous t-shirt. There is a bunch of WWII "parachute squad" stuff around along with the Duce but my Italian friends seem to think it is more camp-y than anything else. Huge portions of both pasta and meat, that is really good.

beltway

One more tip for first-time visitors (as we were):

If you're taking the Malpensa Express train into the city & are reasonably confident that you'll arrive more or less on time -- say, going nonstop EWR-MXP rather than (mis)connecting from the west coast -- it's not a bad idea to buy your ticket online.

Advantages:

• It's easy.
• It's quick. The biglietteria isn't very big, and it would be no fun to be stuck in line if the next train is about to leave. (There are ticket machines, but it's unclear to me whether a US-issued magstripe or chip/signature card will work. The experience of being defeated by the ticket machines at CDG some years ago is burned in my brain.)
• You can do it entirely on your mobile device; no paper required. If the conductor collects tickets, just show your e-ticket code. This option has the added benefit that unlike with regular tickets, you don't need to validate your ticket before descending to the platform level. (I checked, and the validation slot isn't big enough to fit your phone into.)

Disadvantage:

• The ticket is "pre-validated" in the sense that it is only good for the booked date/time, or any train within the following 4 hours. If you miss a connection in ZRH & arrive an hour or two later, no biggie. OTOH, if you end up being delayed much beyond that, you forfeit the value & will need to buy a new ticket.

If you opt for an e-ticket, I suggest buying one for the earliest possible train. Our flight was scheduled to land ~8:40am, so I bought (in what I thought was an optimistic approach) tickets for the 9:43am train. Instead, we landed early, sailed through bag claim/immigration/customs, and made the short walk to the train by 9am.

I asked the clerk if we could use our tickets for the earlier 9:19 train & he said yes. Of course, he was wrong; the 4-hour window of validity only goes forward, not backward. Fortunately, our conductor was nice about it once I explained, and let us off with a reminder "for next time." If I had it to do over, I'd book the first train after 8:50am.