My husband doesn't do well on buses on twisty-turny roads, so when we're without a car we've always taken the ferry or hydrofoil. My favorite way is the passenger-only ferry, but it's slower than the bus.

A subtle numerical point about kybourbon's kindly translation - it's not " direct connections from Milan Malpensa will be four hours each" but "four connections each hour" - two connections every hour to Cadorna (nothing new there), and two connections every hour to Milano Centrale (that's very new).

Bookmarking.
{We're arriving at Malpensa on Oct. 16 and are working out where we'll head from there.}

PS: @ Jean: What service is LeNord, if I may ask? -- I've never heard of it.

tedgale, LeNord is a private rail company operating generally north of Milan, including the Malpensa Express train from the airport to the Milano Cadorna station, and one line north from Brescia.

http://www.lenord.it/

The website used to work very well in the English mode, but something has happened in the last year or so. Now you can't search a route in English, but you can in Italian. While in the "Orari e news" section, you can search a route and look at maps of the various routes. When you're looking at the route maps, click on a station to find details about services available there. Three of the LeNord stations are shared with Trenitalia, and you can make connections: Laveno Mombello, Varese and Novara.

Most tourists would only be interested in the Milano network of routes, although the other network between Edolo (not far from the Swiss border), past Lago d'Iseo, and Brescia and/or Rovato Borgo runs through a beautiful area.

Sometimes the Trenitalia website displays results for LeNord, but I don't trust it to show every option so I search on LeNord for LeNord trains and Trenitalia for Trenitalia trains.

Thanks DalaiLlama your info on the Lufthansa bus.

Is there anything I should know about getting the C30 bus from Piazza Matteotti to Bellagio?

If our flight to Malpensa arrives on time we're hoping to get the 9:30 am Lufthansa bus to Como.(Piazza Matteoti)

Grazie!

@Jean: Thank you.

all trains available to and from Milano to Malpensa available here

http://www.orariotrenimalpensa.it/

cazzani - excellent link!

Ewwww.
I just took the Malpensa- Milano Centrale bus today (a quiet Saturday) at noon.
It was awful:
Late leaving, made further stops (Terminal 2, MilanoFiera) and crawled into Milano Centrale 1h10 later.
Cheap but otherwise has little to recommend.
Bring on the train service!

Ted - last day of Gatineau Park colours. Hurry back.

tedgale

Exactly why I have posted regularly about the new train links. Anyone familiar with Milan traffic and the autostrada to Malpensa - the busiest in Italy - knows that the bus service, whilst cheap, does not guarantee departure and arrival times.
The direct Milano Centrale link is a start. It is possible that the new train service - NTV http://www.ntvspa.it/en/index.html - will also introduce a Malpensa connection.

I just checked, for fun, the Malpensa-Milano Cadorno train schedule. From Malpensa to Milano Cadorno is 29 minutes. Trains leave every 30 minutes.

WIthin the Malpensa Terminal 1, the route to the train is clearly marked throughout the terminal.

Not sure whether the connection is as easy to Terminal 2, the discount carrier terminal.

When I was trip planning, I dismissed Milano Cadorno because I imagined it was a remote quasi-suburban station. Wrong. We walked by there yesterday, after a smashing brunch at the Triennale gallery. It is about 5 minutes walk from the Triennale, hence 10+ minutes from the Castello Sforzesco. It is small and modern and sited in a very pleasant square.

More to the point, it is on a main subway line that goes -- rapidly and very safely, swiftly and cheaply (1E per ride or 3 E for a day pass) -- to useful locations such as Milano Centrale FS...

BTW: We quickly became totally sold on the Milan metro system for convenience and speed. There are subway entrances on just about every corner of the core, it seems.

Cold: Pls aske leaves to stay put on branches until we return Nov.1.

Unfortunately to catch the train from Terminal 2 you have to take the (regular and free) intra-terminal bus as the train station is at Terminal 1.

Therefore, if you do not have time constraints then the bus from Terminal 2 to Milano Centrale is perhaps more convenient than the train.

>>>hence 10+ minutes from the Castello Sforzesco.<<<

Only one short block connecting them so less than ten minutes. On this block between Cadorna and the castel is the Sena bus stop. I caught this bus to Siena for 10€ about a month ago. The bus takes about 1/2 hour longer than taking the train, but the train is about 60€.

Cadorna is an easy subway connection in Milan. The Milan subway lists a fee/ticket for taking your luggage on the subway. I'm not sure anyone pays attention to it though or if it's only for certain large luggage.

http://www.atm-mi.it/en/Pages/default.aspx

>>>Luggage Ticket
Price: € 1.00
Validity: 75 minutes after stamping. Ticket is valid for the transport of a single piece of luggage for which a ticket is required. On the Milan city network a standard Milan ticket may be used in place of a luggage ticket. As for all tickets, luggage tickets should be stamped at the start of the journey; luggage tickets should be presented to ticket inspectors alongside your ticket or travel card if requested.