Concerto

Ok guys, thanks. I figured it was two separate rail companies and indeed, you are right, one doesn't have to prepay everything! For KLouis above, I must say I can't even get the Trenitalia site to price up a through trip to/from MXP. If you click through, it eventually comes up as unsellable, if such a word exists. But if it is as easy to get to Busto or Gallarate as you say, and only 4 Euros or so, then that;s great! What do think of Trainline, an online site that offers through train tickets?

However, I just saw that, thanks to one of the countless online rail sites, there is a Flixbus service from Busto Arsizio which would take me all the way to Montreux. Actually, on further investigation I saw that it also serves Malpensa Terminals 1 and 2! And it is a lot cheaper than that bus to Domodossola, so here we come, my first Flixbus experience!!~ Not much fun hanging around Malpensa until it departs, but beggars can't be choosers and at least I have plenty of buffer in if there are any delays.

rove312

Yes, Trenord - Home shows the fares for their routes out of MXP. I'd say Trainline is best for searching long-haul trips.

ckendall

I have done the Flixbus (Malpensa-Lugano) once when I was staying at the Sheraton. It was fine. There are plenty of cafes etc in Malpensa where you could hang out before the bus.

Concerto

Well it's worked out fine, ticket to Montreux cost €13.99 which is nothing for the distance and (normally) complex city pair. But it drops off at Montreux Chailly P&R up by the highway at 23h25 after a 5 hour trip, after the last bus has gone. So it's either a 20 minute walk down to the lake road or a taxi that will cost at least twice the cost of the bus ticket!

As for cafes in Malpensa, I presume you mean landside after arrival in the airport terminal building.

ckendall

Yes landside cafes: https://www.milanairportsguide.com/m...estaurants.htm

KLouis

On the Trenitalia site, right above where you fill in your details (to/from, date, etc.) there are three boxes/buttons labeled PRINCIPALI SOLUZIONI, FRECCE, REGIONALI, whereby the leftmost is selected by default. Click instead, and select, REGIONALI. I worked fine when I tested it. Of course, I did not perform the ultimate test, i.e. concluding the purchase but till then everything was fine. If you do the same procedure with PRINCIPALI SOLUZIONI selected, then it does not work.

PS PRINCIPALI SOLUZIONI is translated ALL TRAINS in their English pages. Still, don't use this!

Concerto

Thanks! The Gran Cafe, just as you come out of arrivals, was a pretty good Italian snack bar place. The white wine was good (from Langhe region) and the pizza slices (€4.50) were huge.

JMN57

For €4.50 it had better been a HUGE and GOOD slice of pizza. My favorite pizzeria in our town sells a (great) whole Pizza Margherita for €6! And my favorite (mexicana) is all of €8.

ckendall

The poor guy was at the airport, where one expects food to be overpriced.

KLouis

Well, airport indeed, but Concerto is from Switzerland: no wonder (s)he finds this cheap...

Concerto

Not originally from Switzerland, but with a birthday on 1st August I should be! Of course, Malpensa eating options are a far cry from the wonderful choices in Milan and elsewhere but everything could have been worse. When working during the academic year in Switzerland, I pop down to Domodossola with the train every 2 weeks or so to eat a lunch menu in one of the four Michelin recommended restaurants there. Never disappointed! I would like to start exploring the options in Stresa during this coming year.

Incidentally, the Flixbus journey from MXP to Montreux was really good. Nice driver, some pleasant passengers, interesting trip. The route followed the A4/E64 across to Alice Castello, then up to Aosta for a change of driver (really must visit Aosta, some great food there too!). Then we drove, in what was by then darkness, over the Gd St Bernard (E27), passing through the tunnel without so much as a blink from border police or customs. The descent on the other side was a bit hairy, in thick fog and rain. The driver was new to the route and had previously got totally lost getting out of Aosta (but even pilots of planes get lost there sometimes too). For an international road, the E27 is incredible: just a small mountain road, with poorly marked sharp curves and no center white line in places.

Concerto

You know, this is an amazing piece of advice, it actually works! Not sure if you can buy that connection through to Malpensa from one of the ticket machines in the stations. So, even though a prepaid ticket is already time stamped, how long are these tickets actually valid for? I seem to remember a figure of 4 hours, when I did my trip from Verona to Domodossola. In the end, on that trip, I made a lunch stop in Milan and just paid for two separate tickets which cost a couple of Euros more.

I am thinking of making a stop in Stresa on the way to Malpensa, so I think that could just about work (if the 4 hour figure is right). With this variant, I would leave Domo at 14h51 (after a good lunch there) and arrive at MXP at 18h41, with a couple hours in Stresa on the way. Only issue is, Stresa station is about one kilometer from the town itself and I reckon there won't be a luggage locker in that station (as I remember, the station is very "old" Italian).

rove312

Yes, on a Regionale on online tickets there's a 4-hour window for your departure from the time of the train shown on the ticket, not for completion of the trip. So if you have the ticket issued for the 14.51 departure, it would be valid for all trains on that route leaving until 18.51. I'm not sure if a first scan of the ticket puts it in a database that makes trouble with your boarding another train after that stop.

Concerto

I suspect not, the tickets have already become so inflexible compared to previously that would be pushing it too far. But in the end, I will visit my favourite bar after lunch in Domodossola and down a bottle of Lugana before continuing to the airport. Pulling a piece of luggage won't be much fun in Stresa, given the 1km distance from the station to the town center, so I will max out in Domo. Need to do some shopping anyway in one of the supermarkets in Domo.

KLouis

Three or four years ago I boarded a regional train from Pavia to Milano that left one hour before the one I had originally booked the ticket for. The Trenord controller told me that I was traveling without a valid ticket and if he hadn't been that nice, he would have made me pay a mandatory fine for that. Thank God he was "that nice" and it only cost me a 5 minutes long lecture on why I should only travel on trains that I had booked for. Obviously, the guy had never heard about Aristotle and logic, so I gave up very fast and let him... win the debate. The story continued at Milano when I attempted to change my ticket for an earlier Freccia to get home to Perugia, but I leave this for a future post.