Driving from UK to Milan

Thinking about a trip this fall depending on the Covid situation, flying into Milan and driving into France. How difficult is it these days for an American to travel between countries?

Hello again,

I am travelling to Varenna from Milan central train station. I have a choice to both milan airports(LIN and MXP). I know MXP has great connection directly to train station but takes longer since it is far. LIN is near from milan train station but I don't see direct train or shuttle to milan train station. Am I missing anything or for sure there is no direct train/shuttle from LIN to milan central station? Thanks in advance.

HiUnited has dropped fares to Milan from NYC so we are considering for end of August and then spending a week in Lake Como area with last 2 days in Milan. We will need covid tests for re-entry to the US and won’t have a car. How easy is it to find fast turn around testing in Milan city center? Thanks I’m advance!

Hi everyone,

We are scheduling a 1-month trip to Italy in August, including the below spots.

While we will of course make advance bookings for rooms according to our itinerary, we are interested to learn whether there are any additional things you highly recommend booking in advance. (e.g., Last Supper in Milan, scooters in Tuscany, ...)

Of course we realize this depends a lot on what we will do exactly, but that is something we are still planning over the next weeks. Therefore, any suggestions on 'what to definitely book in advance' for the below destinations would already be very much appreciated.

- Milan

- Cinque Terre

- Pisa (optionally also Lucca, both on the way to Siena)

- Tuscany (incl. Siena, San Gimignano, Volterra, Chianti, Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino, Saturnia ; no Firenze as we've been there before)

- Bologna (night stop on the way to Venice)

- Venice

- Verona (night stop on the way to Como)

- Como

Additionally, any additional comments / tips on the itinerary above are of course also very much appreciated.

Thank you,

TraVeL

I’m coming in through Milan, picking up a rental car to drive around Piedmont. We fly in/out of Milan and dropping our rental car before a couple days before we fly back to avoid car return stress on the day we fly back.

Instead of heading to the city, it appears Omenga is the same distance from MXP as Milan city center and planning to spend last 2 nights there.

. Any advice on ease of getting a taxi to the airport? Or am i best to just add a day to Piedmont the stay at an airport area hotel the last day? I hate to be in an airport hotel, but not feeling like going into Milan at the end of the trip.

Thoughts?

Hello. We are planning our trip next summer, which will be based in Italy since our daughter already has a school trip scheduled there.

We're planning to spend about 12 days in Italy, ending in Venice. We have 5-6 more days to play with, and were debating between going to Switzerland for the first time, or going to Milan/Lake Cuomo (also for the first time).

I'm hesitating to add the Switzerland portion onto our trip, out of concerns that it might complicate our travel next summer for Covid-related reasons. I'm worried about things like a difference in entry requirements, extra testing requirements, etc. We are all four fully vaccinated, but who knows what the rules will be concerning that by June 2022?

Since nobody has a crystal ball, I was hoping someone could at least talk about how easy it was to travel between Italy and Switzerland this summer (for vaccinated Americans, if that is relevant).

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give. :)

First off- this may be a bit of a 'bouncing around' post. Sorry! Trying to keep it clear...

I'm planning a trip for Spring 2022 Italy and France. So far, I have booked:

A) Flight into Rome and out of Paris

B) 3 nights in Rome and the following 4 nights in Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore).

This leaves 8 nights before my flight home.

I planned to get from Rome to Riomaggiore by train, via Florence, but this isn't booked yet.

I had thought after check out in the CT that I would go to Milan on an early bus or train, spend the day, and take a night/sleeper train from Milan to Paris, which I would then make my base, and do day trips here and there. I have been to Paris before, as well as Marseille and Nice. LOVE all three - want to see more of France, but also want to have a home base, to feel less nomadic.

I've found plenty of advice to take the Thello train for this. However, I also saw somewhere credible (of course...I can't find it again to quote here... it was on the Thello or Eurail website or something like that...), it looks like the Thello Paris-Milan/Venice is discontinued. Is this true? Are there any other sleeper train options Milan to Paris? I would really like to be able to do a few hours/day in Milan, but am completely open minded.

As a follow up question - I had thought it may be worth it to get the Eurail global 10 day pass. I believe it's good for 10 random days within a one or two month time period. Is this a better plan, to get me to my base camps, and use for the day trips from Paris, allowing me to do them solo rather than booking viator, or some such tour company?

Appreciate all friendly pieces of advice and responses!

Long story short, I had two other trips in planning that my teen daughter eventually vetoed :)

She has requested a culture/sightseeing/city trip over the 'nature' and 'beach' options. She's had a really tough year and with all the anxiety about heading into high school, I would love to make this happen for her. I have about a month to plan this trip, so here's my first attempt at an itinerary. We will be flying in and out of Rome (only option for a direct flight), which we'll be skipping as we have previously visited:

Day 0: overnight flight into Rome, arrive 7:30 am

Day 1: Rome to Naples via high speed train, Napoli, Overnight in Napoli

Day 2: Pompeii tour, Overnight in Napoli

Day 3: Amalfi coast tour (bus tour or private driver), Overnight in Napoli

Day 4: Napoli in the morning, leave for Florence via high speed train, Overnight in Florence

Day 5: Florence, Overnight in Florence

Day 6: Tuscany day trip (bus tour or private driver), Overnight in Florence

Day 7: Train to Cinque Terre w/ stopover in Pisa, Overnight in CT

Day 8: Cinque Terre, Overnight in Cinque Terre

Day 9: Train to Milan, Overnight in Milan

Day 10: Milan in the morning, train to Venice, Overnight in Venice

Day 11: Venice, Overnight in Venice

Day 12: Venice in the morning, Venice to Rome via high speed train or flight, Overnight Rome near airport

Day 13: fly home

Would love to hear your thoughts:

- We like fast paced, but is it too fast paced? Any suggestions?

- I feel like Milan is a bit of a 'detour' and I wonder if it's worth just for one day?

- Should we get TrainItalia passes? Which one?

- I would love to have some flexibility and not prebook hotels in case we want to linger in one area more - is this too much of a risk? (I wouldn't have considered it but i feel like we could 'wing it' this year?)

- Is there anything else I need to pre-book? (ie. tours, transportation, admission tickets, etc).

Thanks all in advance!

Our family is planning to ski 3 to 4 days in Italy in late December 2021. We are intermediate level, 2 adults (late 50's) and 2 teenagers. We plan to visit Milan and Venice either before or after the skiing.

We are looking for some advice on the following:

1. Is there usually enough snow in late December or early January?

2. Which ski resorts will be suitable and easy to travel to from Milan? We do not have a car.

3. Will it be easy to rent skis at the resort? We plan to bring our own boots and helmets.

4. We have not skied in Europe before. Will it be very different from US and Canada?

Thanks in advance for any tips and suggestions you can provide!

I'll be flying from the USA into MXP, landing at 7:30 AM in a few weeks on Thursday. Flight out is Saturday at around 5:00 PM from MXP to France. I mostly want to go to Lake Como, but I was hoping to also see Milan city if possible. I will be using public transport and prefer to stay somewhere that isn't Como city.

If anyone has experience, can you please give some advice on what would be the best way to do this? I was thinking either go straight to Milan and get an early train Friday morning to the lake and then straight to airport Saturday, or go straight to Lake Como and then Milan either late Friday night or super early Saturday and walk around for a few hours before my flight. I am open to skipping Milan if the schedule is too tight - I have already taken pictures in front of many churches and fountains in Europe, and I also don't have interest in museums.

I guess my concerns are using public transportation for such a long trip with a lot of transfers after landing in Milan - I could be held up in immigration for hours and maybe the trains aren't frequent? And also using public transport for a long trip on the same day as my flight out - if I don't make a connection, I could end up stuck somewhere!

Appreciate any insight you can give!

Thank you :)