Milan trip - please help :(
 

I was to meet a friend in Milan for a weekend. She lives there and speaks Italian. Sounds lovely, no? Well, now she can´t go. So I have no idea what to do now that I have these plane tickets. I´m also traveling on a budget and am worried about spending too much on a hotel (Less than 75 euros). I can stay at the Milan Marriott for very cheap (since I work for the company) but have heard it is not a great hotel and very far from both the airport and the center of the city.

Then again, if my friend isn´t going to even be IN Milan...should I consider taking the train to somewhere else instead? I arrive in Milan around noon on a saturday and then leave very very early monday morning.

I am terribly sorry to have no idea of what to do, but I am very unfamiliar with Italy and was happy to have my own tourguide, but disappointed to have her bail on me

Thank you SO MUCH in advance!!

On that budget you are going to find it tough to find a place to stay in Milan. If you would be able to spend a little more, I think it would be most economical for you to stay there, because you will otherwise have to spend money on train transportation to and from somewhere else, and then to and from the airport.

Try the Gran Duca di York for a hotel. It is centrally located to the Duomo and good shopping. You can walk there from the Malpensa Express which stops at the Linate station, I believe.

By staying there, you can inexpensively see some good sights. Go to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, which is right around the corner and is a lovely, small gallery of some wonderful art, including a famous Caravaggio that you will recognize! You can wander around the Duomo, do some shopping. Eat at Trattoria Milanese, also right around the corner from that hotel. You can take the subway to see the Last Supper, or go to Pinacoteca Brera and then wander around hip Brera. Go to Peck, the huge food emporium, and just gaze at everything - it is truly amazing. They have a little cafe near the store, (don't confuse it with their very expensive restaurant) where you can have a nice snack.

Again, I think if you keep it a "compact" weekend, you will spend less money overall than spending money getting to and from somewhere else. Stay near the historical center of Milan, to save money on taxis, and just enjoy being in a new place.

<<On that budget you are going to find it tough to find a place to stay in Milan.>>

Well, there are tougher places to find a 75 euro room (this is for single?), and there are easier. The website www.eurocheapo.com has close to two dozen listings... and I quickly found others not even listed there in your price range (if you do a general search, it takes you to their parent website, venere.com - - and a sort of the 229 hotels in ascending price shows that the first 25 hotels on the list are under 60 euro).

One problem with venere.com is that they sometimes show rates from the lowest-rpiced times of the year, and then you can't find anything close to that for the dates you entered. But I arbitrarily tried one - - the Charly, near Stazione Centrale - - it listed 55 euro, and sure enough, it shows (August 1) availabiliy at 55 euro (50, for bathroom down the hall) single and 70 euro double.

Best wishes,

Rex

As you basically have a day and a half in Milan, I don't think you should go anywhere else. You'd lose too much time.

You have just enough time in Milan to do a number of interesting things, as Faredolce says. Even if you just window-shopped and roamed the streets, it would be fun, and not too daunting. The window-shopping in Milan was FANTASTIC (best I have seen anywhere), and if I had had more time, I might have engaged in some real shopping (not everything in Milan is Prada-priced - there are affordable options).

Milan is fairly easy to navigate - don't worry, even without a tour guide you can have a lovely time.

Hi K,

See this site for making reservations for "The Last Supper".

http://www.initaly.com/regions/artists/lastsupp.htm

((I))

I think you'd better check out other online booking sites for the Last Supper before you decide to use that one that was recommended in the previous post which charges E16 for the visit.

This one charges Euro 8 for the booking:
http://www.cenacolovinciano.org/english/index.html

If I were in your shoes... I'd skip Milan and go straight to Venice by train (~3 hour ride) for the weekend. I'd check with Pensione La Calcina if one of their single rooms is available (with shared bath is in your price range and it is a lovely hotel).

Oops with a "very early" Monday morning flight I guess you need to spend Sunday night in Milan regardless.

That is a VERY short stay. I hope you aren't traveling too far to get here.

Don't be worried about the language barrier and being alone.

Actually I found Milan to be the easiest place for me to be when I was singular- and I don't have more than a couple dozen Italian words that people seem to be able to understand. Many switched to English and I did spend one whole day just walking in the rain in Milan. Food I found was excellent and the entire day was about a 9 on a 10 scale. Extremely interesting modern city and vastly underestimated in my book.

It's only two night cost you're talking about. So either the deal at the Marriott and add in public transportation costs to get to and from the city center. Or maybe up your budget a bit if you can and find a hotel that is walking distance to some of the things you want to see, or is near a good district for shopping or restaurants, like that.

topping... this has some reference to the Last Supper - - wonder if this is what "papagena" was trying to find...

I gave papagena the link on her posting.

Thank you SO MUCH for your help!! I´ll definitely stay in Milan, my flight monday morning is at 6AM...eesh. The Marriott for me is 49€. Any idea what it would cost to get into town? I wouldn´t be taking too many trips, probably only there and back each day. I´m assuming Milan has a bus/metro system. I´d be ok with spending 10€/way and having a hotel I feel comfortable with rather than one that I book online and don´t really know the location of. I just have a hard time booking hotels on the internet without hearing personal reviews, ya know?

Again, you guys have been a huge help! I´m no longer ridiculously nervous and am very excited to go! Also good to know I can do some reasonable shopping as well :)