Originally Posted by highlanderfil

Having been to Milan before, I respectfully disagree - it definitely merits more than a day just walking around. Even though I've now been twice, the Duomo square and the cathedral alone are worth a couple of hours. I've formed no such opinion about Turin, though - it's my wife's favorite city in the world and I'm going to reserve judgment until I see it for more than a rainy afternoon in March.

We will be in Milan for one full day upon arrival (we are arriving separately, as my wife will be visiting family in Russia beforehand, but we both get in before noon) and a half-day the next day (the Harry Potter Exhibition serendipitously ended up in Milan of all places this year, so we're definitely going). Staying by the Central Station (7K points at the Four Points, though I might end up switching that to a cash rate eventually, as that's not too great a redemption rate), so we're within walking distance of pretty much everything, including, I hope, our Europcar location. In Turin we're staying at the Holiday Inn in the city center (another questionable-ish redemption value of 60K IHG points/three nights, so we'll see what Accelerate promotion is running by then and might switch some if not all nights to cash) and the National Cinema Museum is on our visit list, as well as the Ferrari Museum.

Any opinion on the beach in Marina Pisa specifically? Everything I've read suggests it's a smaller, less inhabited strip of pebble. As for the tax, yeah, little amounts like that don't really shock me anymore and I believe it was actually included in the (non-prepaid, which was important because plans do sometimes fail) Priceline rate.
Good to know - worth keeping in mind for next time we visit. Thanks!