We are taking a weekend trip (our first to Italy) and are flying into Milan for 4 days at the end of this month, we want to see the cathedral and The Last Supper there but are interested in moving on after the day. We are at a loss for easily accessed destinations by train to spend rest of our time. Does anyone have any favorites? We just want to have a relaxing time training to a city exploring a bit, spending the night and moving on. Even a night train to somewhere wouldn't be out of the question. We are trying to get an overview for future trips as well as just have a fun weekend. Not sure how to work the logistics of this trip and any input would be helpful. Thank you.

Posted just today.<BR><BR>Author: Rex ([email protected])<BR>Date: 08/05/2002, 10:55 am<BR>Message: To make a reservation to see Il Cenacolo (The last supper) call Santa Maria della Grazie. I was there in 2000 with 11 people. I think that we simply called 1 or 2 days ahead, but there were limited time slots on that short notice (our group was 11 though).<BR><BR>The following details are courtesy of<BR><BR>http://abcnews.go.com/sections/travel/Europhiles/steves009016.html<BR><BR>since I can no longer find other references to this information I think I have posted in the past.<BR><BR>===================================== =<BR><BR>25 tourists are allowed in every 15 minutes. For a reservation (requiring a fee of $1.50), call 199-199-100 if you’re in Italy or 011-39-028-942-1146 from the United States.<BR><BR>=================================== ===<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR><BR>With four days, I recommend a trip to Lake Como, and perhaps include villa Balbianello (the best destination in my opinion if you are staying AT Lake Como, but not to the exclusion of everything else - - and hard to visit unless you ARE staying at the lake; no approach from land, and boats by reservation only).<BR><BR>And there are a handful of good message "threads" here on Milan from the last day or so.<BR><BR>I recommmend that you scroll through the first 100-200 threads, and they will jump right out at you. then additionally, search "Milan" or Bergamo, or Bellagio or Pavia here for threads from months past.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR><BR>

The following URLs (web page addresses) are for two of the rect threads I mentioned before. Topped for you - - but all "topping" quickly falls right back down off the "first page".<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessages.jsp?fid=2&tid=1284470<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessages.jsp?fid=2&tid=1290968<BR>

We will coming to Milan from the south in a rental car and would like to drop it somewhere outside of the city and then go in on some other means of transportation. Any suggestions?

You can always go into Lake Como. There are 1/2 day boat trip there with great views, and after that you can always go into Lugano (Italian border) in Switzerland...you are so close!!<BR><BR>Enjoy it!

To Ron:<BR><BR>www.avis.com has an easy facility to assist you in locating every one of their locations in Italy (or any other country in the world). You don't say what car rental company you re using, but where Avis is, others usually are, too (but not always).<BR>