Help me plan this trip!!
 

We will be arriving in Italy Sept 12th at the Milan Malpensa airport. Due to flight costs we will depart from Milan Malpensa on Sept 27th. This will give us 15 nights. We would like to visit Piedmont area, Parma, Montepulciano, Stresa, & Rome.

Is this itinerary possible?? My husband must go to Rome this trip which makes the departure from Milan a little dicey.

Any advice?? We will rent a car.

thanks

Does your husband have to be in Rome some particular time?

Off the top of my head, I suggest you fly into Milano and take an airport shuttle bus to Stresa (about 50 minutes away). Spend two or 3 nights there, then return to Malpensa to rent a car and drive to Piemonte. From there, make the next stop Montepulciano, then Rome. Dump the car in Rome (or Siena or Orvieto and take the train to Rome), then take a train to Parma (4 hours). From Parma, you can take the train to Milan (2 hours).

You can do the trip backwards, too, spending your last night in Stresa. Or you could fit in Parma after your trip to Piemonte (driving there), then swing back to Montepulciano, then down to Rome, and train back to Milano (It's a five hour trip.)

nessundorma gave good advice.

If you want my honest advice, I would cancel Montepulciano though, so you have less driving and enough time for Rome, a stop in Parma and Milan (less is more, if this is to become a vacation trip).
After Stresa and the Piemonte you just come back to Malpensa and take the train from Milano to Rome or Parma, whichever you want to have first. I would opt for Parma.

You may want to combine Montepulciano with an extra trip to Tuscany (Siena, Pisa, Firenze, Volterra, San Gimignano, etc.) another time.

ttt

Both of the above posters know from what they post. maybe go from Malpensa to Stressa to the Langhe/Monferrato in Piemonte, then over to Parma through the the Piemontese / Emilianese border ( a beatiful ride). On to south Tuscany if you really must this time (it is worth a vacation on its own) for a day or two and then to Rome. Then dump the car and train it back to Mílan.
That would be my suggestion.

Diana

I would look into a flight from MXP to Rome, as soon as you arrive. Get that part over with, then work your way back. It takes some finite time to get from MXP to anywhere. In that length of time, you could fly onward to Rome.

Best wishes,

Rex

Oh... and you really should re-post this question and mention Italy in the message header. A question without a destination in the message header, is like a library full of books, all with a dust cover on them that says "Book".