We are travelling to Tuscany in early Oct. and must leave from Milan. Can anyone suggest a decent hotel close to the airport in Milan to stay overnight before the morning departure

Jim, unfortunately I can only tell you where NOT to stay in Milan. I was referred to Hotel Star in Milan, supposedly "close" to the Centrali Train Station with transfers to and from airport. Rude Staff, smelly room, no transfer! Fortunately we are able to laugh at things like that, and every other hotel we stayed at during that trip was top notch.

Jim- the airport is some distance out of Milan. We stayed at the Tulip Arizona right at the end of the tram line into the city centre, so we didn't ahve to drive into Milan itself; and it was near a motorway exit for the airport. Worked for us. Sort of utilitarian- clean; ac; small shower room en suite; no frills £40 per person per night

Jim - Which airport in Milan, Malpensa or Linate? - the other Jim <BR>

Hello. Just returned from Italy a few weeks ago. <BR>If you are leaving from Milan Malpensa Airport, I can recommend the Hotel Cervo as a very basic, but comfortable, hotel only 5 minutes from Malpensa Airport, by the convenient hotel shuttle,that leaves more or less every 30 minutes to the <BR>airport, except certain times of day. <BR>The hotel is relatively basic, not fancy, our rooms were very neat and <BR>clean; in fact, our bathroom was huge. There is a small lobby and even a small bar. <BR>They have a restaurant that was actually quite decent (only serve dinner until <BR>9:00 pm though); the breakfast was <BR>nothing exciting. <BR>I think the hotel/restaurant is family run. Price was L140,000 double. <BR>I was worried about staying in an "airport hotel" but we felt this was far <BR>better than any such place in New York! <BR>The Cervo worked fine for us....at that point we were mostly interested in <BR>being close to the airport for our flight out, rather than charm and <BR>quaintness. I would recommend it as a clean, comfortable, low-key place <BR>with good service. <BR>You can check out their website: www.malpensa.it/hotelcervo/home.htm. Fax is: 0331.230156. <BR>Good luck, and have fun! <BR>

If you have a car, or maybe even if you don't, (we did), you could even try Stressa on Lago Maggiore. Depends of course on your departure time and how early you want to get up. Couple of years ago we did this, almost got lost getting to Malpensa, found a gas station for the last minute fill-up, had plenty of time for a mid morning departure. I will admit to a bit of tenseness when we weren't sure we had the right road, but nothing bad happened, so no I remember it as kinda fun. Stressa was not as nice as Lago d Como, in our opinion, but it sure has lots of fans.

Assuming Malpensa, the Hotel Villa Malpensa is quite posh (www.malpensa.it/villa.htm) Also look at [email protected] and [email protected] which is a favorite of the airlines about a 7 minute taxi ride, clean and convenient. I would not be comfortable possibly missing an international flight by staying up in the lakes. We almost missed a flight at Milan twice and it's a nightmare airport to navigate in a hurry. Both instances were when we tried to get too clever with our return.

This April we stayed at the Hotel Cardano (sorry, I don't remember the address or number offhand), about a 10 minute taxi ride from the Airport. The staff was super friendly, the rooms were large and clean. They have no restaurant but arranged free transportation to and from a nice trattoria. <BR> <BR>One warning, the taxi driver from the airport assumed we knew where the hotel was, and asked us for directions! Luckily, there happened to be a sign just as he pulled over. <BR>

Hotel Oleggio is about 10 or 15 minutes from Malpensa. We stayed there last April the night before our flight home to the US. It was about $100 for a comfortable double room with bath, and breakfast. They have a free shuttle to the airport. We were very happy with the place. <BR> <BR>www.paginegialle.it/holeggio <BR>www.comet.it/holeloleggio <BR>e-mail [email protected] <BR> <BR>phone 0321.93301 or 800-233643 <BR>fax 0321.93377 <BR>