csabia

I've heard it's a but we're in a unique situation. We're ending a 10 day trip with a car in Milan and will return it before our flight. We'll be there on a Monday, so I don't think much will be open for us to see. How difficult is it to drive into the city and park? We're from NY and while driving in NYC is not fun, it's certainly doable and parking is widely available. Are cars and contents generally safe? Also, if anyone knows of a hotel with parking, we'd appreciate it.
Thank you.

nytraveler

No contents are not safe - anything at all left visible in the car marks it for theft. And overall car theft in Italy is very frequent.

Not sure where the pedestrian zone is - and as in NYC unless you know the neighborhood, the best thing to do with a car is garage it, rather than figure out where local street parking is legal.

Separately, if you're leaving from Milan why not dump the car as soon as you get there and just leave your luggage in the hotel?

csabia

If we can stay in the city and park the car at the hotel, we would do this. If we stay outside the city, the luggage may still be in the car. That's why this is a bit tricky. We don't want to go to the airport, return the car and then have 2-way airport fares for us.

csabia

I meant to say - I heard it's difficult.

Jean

I think you can buy Malpensa Express (train) round-trip tickets for 18 euros per person, so 36 euros total. The Malpensa Shuttle (bus) round-trip is 16 euros per person, so 32 euros total. If your hotel is close to the Centrale station, you won't need to use taxis or the metro.

Compare this with the cost of the additional rental day plus overnight parking. If you have to enter the 'congestion zone,' there will be an additional 5 euro charge.

https://www.comune.milano.it/portale...rea+C/English/

Where will you be before driving to Milan? Perhaps you could return the car there and then train to Milan...

csabia

Thanks - We will be in Cinque Terre = there are 4 of us and if we return at a different location, there is an additional charge.

asps

If your luggage can't be seen from the exterior, while not absolutely safe, it is quite unlikely to be stolen. You would have to be very unlucky.

When driving in Milan, remember that the city is laid like a bull's eye in concentric circles, with three great rings. The middle ring is double - two close alleys - as it is were once were the city walls. The area inside this ring is "area C" and you must pay a tax to access it on working days, 7.30am to 7.30pm. Once you have accessed it, you have a limited time to pay the tax, if you don't you get a fine in the mail.

A thing that may disconcert the foreign driver is that on larger boulevards often turning left is not allowed as you would block incoming traffic. In this case there are some tricks to turn left - like moving in advance to a right aisle where you can cross the boulevard at a traffic light; or going on for a block, turning right and circling around the block. Sometimes you get stuck because you cannot find the trick.

csabia

Where can one pay the tax?

sandralist

If you are being charged to drop it off at a different location, then rent with another company. If you can't do that for some peculiar reason, then weigh the cost of the drop off fee against the cost of parking the car in Le Cinque Terre (where you won't use it all) and then parking it in Milan (where you won't use it) on top of the chance of getting a huge ticket for driving in the wrong place in Milan. You should get rid of the car before you go to your hotel in le Cinque Terre.

Call your rental company and see if you can switch to dropping off the car at La Spezia or Rapallo for free or a reasonable fee. Or, at a minimum, Linate airport outside Milan. From there, take the bus into the city and spend the night. It's a 30 minute bus ride from Linate to Milan Centrale Station.

But I would seriously consider dumping your present car rental arrangement if you don't get a satisfactory response from them.

asps

Here are the instructions to pay the access tax. Yes, they are difficult to understand even to Italian speakers.

http://www.comune.milano.it/portale/...+di+pagamento/

Elizabeth_S

We stayed one night in Milan as we were traveling through to Venice (wish we had spent longer).

We stayed at Hotel King Mokinba - which is almost equi-distant from the Duomo and Last Supper (although if you're there on a Monday I think the latter is closed?)

http://www.hotelkingmilano.com/en/

The hotel has parking at a lot about 50 metres down the street. Driving in Milan was fine - we took it easy and I used the belt and suspenders approach - GPS and Google maps. It was before the Congestion Charge but it looks as though you can pay that at parking garages so possibly the Hotel's garage includes it? Otherwise here is an English page from the Milan site which explains where to pay

https://www.comune.milano.it/portale...rea+C/English/

csabia

Thank you all for the advice. We ended up returning the car early, sleeping at an airport hotel where our luggage was stowed safely and taking the train to the Cadorna. We enjoyed a nice day in Milan and noticed there were no cars, so were glad we were not driving.