We are arriving at Malpensa at 8am and we are staying in Stresa that night, but since we've never been to Milan, we'd like to spend at least a couple of hours in Milan. Specifically, we'd like to see the Duomo, walk a little, and eat lunch before we leave for Stresa.

I have found that we can take the shuttle from the airport to Milano Centrale, but then it's a 40 min walk or a cab ride to get to the Duomo from the train station. Is there a way to get from the airport straight to the Duomo (relatively inexpensively)?

Then from there we will have to get back to the train station, since we're taking the train to Stresa. Is there a bus that would be convenient? Is it even worth all the hassle just to spend 2 or 3 hours?

Thanks for any tips!!

There isa train to Milan Cordormna station from MXP. You could walk to the Duomo from ther eor take a street car. Sorry I don't know where you would be able to store your luggage.I don't know if it's worth the hassle; it would be if yo had tickets to see "The Last Supper."

We are backpacking so we won't have a lot of luggage. We are purposefully packing light so that we don't have to worry about storing it anywhere.

Thank you for the information of the Cordormna station, I will have to look into that! We don't have tickets to the Last Supper- they were already sold out a few weeks ago when I looked (we'll be there the last week of May). We're going from Stresa to Switzerland where we are spending our vacation. Since we've never been to Italy, we thought it would be a shame to be in Milan and not look around at all.

We recently took a bus outside Malpensa Terminal 1 to Stresa in case you decide to skip Milan. We went to Milan on the end of our trip and I believe you would be glad that you took the time to
make a visit. Just to see the duomo is worth a visit and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele is right next to it along with all
the main shopping streets, etc. It would be nice to see the
Last Supper painting but a bit much to do in your time frame.
You will also be dealing with jet lag I assume. I believe you can take the Malpensa Express train to Cadorna Station, which should be an easy walk to the duomo area, then take a taxi or
go back to Cadorna and go to Milano Centrale and take a train to Stresa. I am no expert on this so maybe someone will else will confirm, but think this is all accurate. Happy travels!!!

FYI,OOPS, I believe you have to take the metro green line across from Cadorna to get back to Milano Centrale rather than a train from Cadorna.

Thanks! I think we will bring information for both (going straight to Stresa from the airport and going into Milan for a couple of hours first). That way, we will have a backup plan in case we get delayed or we're just too jet lagged and want to go straight to our hotel. For the bus to Stresa, did you have to make a reservation? Was it a private company or public bus?

kaleighmh,

We were staying in Milan for 1 nt before training to Stresa. We took the express train from Malpensa to Cardorna Nord station, then a taxi to our hotel, which was very near the duomo. There is also a metro stop nearly right at the piazza where the duomo is located. I would expect that you can easily go from Cadrona Nord to the duomo via metro. Then metro or taxi to Milano Centrale from the dumo. Our train trip to Stresa only took an hour and was very easy.

Buon viaggio!

I was curious, so I just googled it. It looks like the Cadorna FS station is only 3 metro stops away from the duomo. You would take the Metropolitana line 1 - Red. Then you would take the Metropolitana line 3 - Yellow to get to Milano Centrale for the train to Stresa.

We were originally to arrive in Geneva and had our flight cancelled and they had us fly into Milan. So, we did not have
reservations and I don't think you need them. Just outside Terminal 1 you find lots of bus stalls with a sign in front of
each one for the places they go and a schedule. We just went to the Stresa one and had to wait 30 min or so before it arrived. It was very inexpensive and it was about an hour to Stresa. This is the bus website.
http://www.safduemila.com/alibus_mal..._maggiore.html
You would probably miss the 8:20 and need the 11:20.

Sorry, the website will not open for me. If you will just Google SAF bus Malpensa 2010 schedule it should come up and
you will need to translate to English unless your Italian is
really good.

Dayle- thanks for the info about the metro, that helps a lot!
Violet- my Italian is non-existent, so I will have to use a translator to figure out the schedule, but it shouldn't be too tough. Again, thanks so much for the info- hopefully our flight will be on time and we will be full of energy to go explore Milan. But if not, the bus straight to Stresa will be a very simple, convenient back up plan!

We're only staying one night in Stresa, then heading to switzerland for the bulk of our vacation. I'm now seeing, though, that there is a strike on may 27-28 (of course, the ONLY two days we are in italy....)
I don't speak any italian though and so I've been having a hard time finding a website in English with any good information. will we be able to get to switzerland? should we just get out of italy ASAP and head straight to switzerland from malpensa? will boats in stresa be running to go see the islands? is there a good way (in english) to get up to date info?

I can tell you with 100% certainty that there is no luggage storage at Cadorna station. Another forum (will not mention the name) assured us there was luggage storage as did the Milan tourist office. There most definitely is not! (Old lockers taped off and not used.)

kaleighmh,

I suggest you know your options and then make up your mind once you land in Malpensa, based on how you feel and the weather:

Option A)

Take the bus from Malpensa airport directly to Stresa. You will find bus ticket sellers in very obvious places once you clear customs. Drop your backpacks at your hotel (you may not be able to get into your room that early) and decide whether you would like to take the train from Stresa into Milan to see the Duomo. (There is a train station in Stresa. It is one hour by train to Milan Central station. I recommend a taxi to the Duomo since your time is short and you don't speak Italian). Take another train back to Stresa. In summer, you may still have time to see at least one or two of the islands.

Option B)

Upon arrival in Malpensa, take the bus to Stazione Centrale. Either store your backpacks or take them with you in a taxi (you'll be charged a small luggage-handling charge by the driver). See the Duomo. Go back to Stazione Centrale and take the train to Stresa. Go to your hotel. Decide if you want to see the islands.

have a great trip!

The Italian rail strike is called for 24 hours beginning 9:00 p.m. Thursday, May 27th. It will not impact ferry service.

There is bus service between Malpensa and Stresa. You would definitely want a reservation.

http://www.sea-aeroportimilano.it/en...=come_arrivare

Jean- thanks for that information- I guess since it doesn't start until 9pm, I am less concerned with the bus/train to Stresa since we get in at 8am, so we should have plenty of time no matter whether we decide to see the Duomo or not. I'm more concerned with the next day when we need to get to Montreux and were planning on taking the train there via Brig....I am confused though about the bus service to Stresa. It seems that some people think making a reservation is absolutely unnecessary, while others think it's a MUST. I really don't want to make a decision until after we arrive since we could be delayed, be extremely tired, or may want to spend some time in Milan. Is there more than one bus service or just that one company?

Zeppole- thanks for the suggestions. I do think we will wait until we get there to make any final decision, I've never flown for more than 3 hours so I have no idea how well I'll do :/

We weren't planning on storing our bags at the station, since we are only going to have light backpacks. we hike a lot and have no problem walking around with our bags for multiple hours. but we will keep it in mind (at centrale) just in case.

Since we didn't plan to arrive in Milan we definitely didn't
have reservations. We arrived it seems around 8 or 9 AM and
we didn't have but 3 or 4 other people on the bus to Stresa.
That doesn't mean you might not need reservations, but just wanted you to know how it was for us if that helps any.

If you can sleep on your flight over you will probably be good to go. However, we just can't sleep much and the jet lag
gets us fairly early in the afternoon.

Let us know how your trip goes and hope you have a great one!!

Thanks, Violet. I suppose worst case scenario, if we decide to go straight to Stresa and the bus is full, we can just do to centrale like planned and go to stresa from there, but still skip site seeing in Milan. As of right now, though, I have my heart set on spending sometime in Milan. Being my first time in Italy (and probably my last for a very very long time), I think I could regret not spending time there, even if we're exhausted. We're both early 20's and generally very active people, so hopefully we can just use pure adrenaline to push through that first day.

But I'm still stressing about this strike!!!! Are there any guaranteed trains into Switzerland from Stresa? Or some other plan?? As of right now, the strike is schedule for the WHOLE day we are in stresa, and we were planning to leave for Montreux around noon. I can't find good information anywhere. We're on a very small backpacker's budget and I just don't think we could afford to rent a car.

And I thought that the volcano would be our only transportation woes... silly me!

We experienced a rail strike a few years ago in Italy and the best I remember it would go on and off about every four hours and there were still some trains running all the time. It was a very strange strike to us. Here again your situation can be
totally different. There are several Fodorite rail experts and maybe if you post a new direct question about the strike you will get more information. Good luck.

Strikes are sometimes cancelled, but there is also a boat that travels north on the lake to Switzerland -- which might be an adventure.

http://www.navigazionelaghi.it/

It would never occur to me to make a reservation for the bus from Malpensa to Stresa, and I would want to keep my options open. However, if you get more information that makes you feel you really should make a reservation, I believe the fare is not much money if you are required to pay in advance. If I arrived in Malpensa full of energy and ready to see the Duomo, I would not let the fact I'd paid for a bus ticket stop me from going to Milano.

Regarding backpacks, sounds fine to carry them but bear in mind: Climbing the roof of the Duomo is enjoyable, and you might want to not have backpacks for that. And it's possible that you won't be allowed certain places with your backpacks for security reasons. If you change your mind and decide to check them at Milano Centrale, the name of the left-luggage office is "deposito bagagli".

If it turns out that you head directly to Stresa, and spend the morning seeing the islands, remember that it is still light in Milan until 8pm or even later that time of year. If you get a second wind, you can leave Stresa after lunch and still see a bit of Milano, and enjoy its apertivo hour, and head back to Stresa by train if there is no strike.