We will be headed to Italy in Sept. This is our first time ever to Europe! This is also a part of a larger trip that starts with us flying into GVA then heading to Zermatt (for 2 nights). Pick up the Glacier Express there and ride the rails across the Alps before stopping again for one night in St Moritz. The next day we head south via Bernina Express scenic train to Tirano and then connecting there to get to Milan via regional train...

From what i have read there is not a ton of stuff in Milan, but we would like to see the Duomo and maybe wonder through the big Galleria mall before heading out to Florence. We are staying at the Boscolo Milano. If we got up early we might be able to do that and make a 12:30 train that would get us into Florence around 2:30 on monday Sept 7th. Is that doable? We are staying in the historic center of Florence thanks to a great recommendation from FT member PWMtrav!

So far our list includes

1) Grand Duomo/tower/baptistry/Cathedral.

2) Medici Chapel (Chappelle Medici)

3) Giardino Bardini Garden

4) Church of Santa Maria Novella

5) Basilica of San Miniato al Monte

6) Uffizi Gallery

We have booked the food and nude tour for the next day (Sept 8th) which will cover the Accademia (and other things) so that is why that is not on this list. Again thanks to a recomendation from PWMtrav

My question is how to fit all of this in? What would be the best use of our arrival half day? We check in on the 7th and out on the 10th, before heading to Rome. Maybe we could leave later on that last day in order to get more sights in since we have more time in Rome (5 nights).

I am also confused by the number of different trains you can take from Milan to Florence. I have been looking at Italotreno website but there seems to be a few others that do this route as well. Not sure which is better but i liked the look of the high speed Italotreno's.

Help!