Flying into Milan
 

Which airport is more convenient if I am flying into Milan but going to Portafino....Malpensa or Linate? Thank you fellow travelers!

Milan Malpensa Airport is best for visiting in Milan.

Are you driving? If so, Linate is about half an hour closer.

If I'm understanding the question (and I'm not sure I do), it probably doesn't matter. You want to go directly from the airport to Portofino? If so, from either airport, you would take the train to Milano Centrale and then transfer to another train to Portofino.

If you are picking up a rental car, it is better to fly into Linate to drive to Portofino.

If you are taking the train, it is also a bit quicker if you land in Linate. You can take a bus to Milano Centrale in 30 minutes, and then take a train from there to Santa Margherita Ligure. You will need a taxi or bus from there to Portofino.

If you fly to Malpensa, it takes an hour by bus or train to get to Milano Centrale. Be careful if you take the train that you take the one that goes to Milano Centrale and NOT the one that goes to Milano Cadorna. You need the central train station.

Thank you.....that's how it looked to me from the map as well. Sounds like Linate would cut down the time to the hotel about 30 minutes and 30 minutes is huge after a transatlantic flight through London!!
Anybody been to Portofino?

I've been to Portofino several times. It is very tiny but it gets a lot of tourists. Most everything there is very expensive, and I never eat meals there or buy gelato, etc. If the ground is dry, there are long hikes you can take in the hills with pretty view. Boat rides in nice weather. To me the two most interesting things about Portofino are the cemetery (above town) and a tiny modern art gallery in the center of town, away from the water, named Tornabuoni.

If you are arriving by car on a sunny weekend (not this one!), there can be long traffic jams to get into Portofino because there is only road going there, and at some points in the road it is only one lane. There is only one parking lot in Portofino, and if it is full, cars are not allowed into the town.

My Portofino experience: a little town with "art" shops, expensive jewelry stores and banks. My advice: arrive by boat. The visual experience is staggering! Then catch the next boat out.

Did you try to fly to Genoa instead of Milan?

It is true that in season you can get a ferry from Santa Margherita Ligure into Portofino. It's only a 10 minute ride and it makes for a beautiful arrival. With luggage, you might want to take a taxi from the train station to the dock, but if it is rolling luggage, it's a completely downhill walk, so it's not too bad. You just walk toward the sea and the dock location is pretty obvious.

It's also true there are a lot of "art" shops in Portofino selling garish fake oil paintings of the port, seagulls, vinyards, etc. But Tornabuoni on the via Roma is a branch of the very serious Tornabuoni modern art dealers in Florence, which also has branches in Paris and Milan. The one in Portofino also sells 20thc and contemporary art by known artists at prices well beyond what I can afford.

In season, the Castello Brown up the hill (formerly owned by a British consul to Genoa, who restored it) sometimes has interesting art shows that are worth the wall up the hill, which also provides for an escape from the crowds and the silly luxury shopping.

http://www.castellobrown.com

The movie Enchanted April was filmed at Castello Brown.