We leave for our month in Florence in less than 2 months! We will be spending our last 2 nights at Villa Malpensa by the Milan airport and wanted to take a day trip. We have 2 small children and thought a view of the mountains/lakes might be welcome, despite being cold.

All ideas welcome

The help and tips I have received from the web site and forums has been very helpful. I will be glad when I can return the favors with info from our own trip.

Kaitlyn

How about heading north to Lake Como? If you are a fan of Rick Steve's, his favorite spot is Varenna--a small midlake town. You could drive or take the train (1 hr from Milano). Passenger ferries are best way to see other lakeside towns.

BTW, we had a wonderful dinner @ Villa Malpensa--their fresh onion soup was fabulous.

To cut down on amount of stress on departure day, suggest you consider returning your rental car the night below. You will need to hire a car (not a taxi) to take you the 2 km back to Villa Malpensa. Then take the Villa's free shuttle to the airport the next day. We were thankful that we returned our car early because the lines at AVIS were long and slow moving.

Ciao

Kaitlyn, you have the right idea as there is NOTHING to do immediately around Villa Malpensa. We stayed there the night before leaving and really enjoyed it--also, had a very good meal. It is kind of interesting to explore the old workers village directly across the street but that takes 15 minutes. It is the decrepit remains of the estate's working families prior to WWII when the Villa was owned by a leading facist who entertained Hitler and Mussolini. The advice about returning the car is good--just know that you will pay a ridiculous price for the ride back to the hotel. If you accept that ahead of time, you won't be frustrated when it happens.

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You will need to hire a car (not a taxi) to take you the 2 km back to Villa Malpensa.

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Why? How do you do this? I should add this to our FAQ about last night in Italy - Milan.

I agree with Mare that a trip to Lake Como is a good idea. It is closer than Lake Maggiore. I have read on the AOL boards that it is only an hour by train. On my road atlas, it looks like you could take the train straight to Bellagio, the town in the middle of the two branches of the lake. From there you could take the boat to Varenna, just across the lake and take the train back.

Be sure to check that the trains go to these places. We have links to train info on the web site:
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/links.htm

We spent five days in Menaggio, right across the lake from Varenna in June-July 1997 - you would think the weather would be great, but it rained the whole time, the lake was flooding. It was horrible and we left early. So maybe you will have better luck in the winter! Menaggio is a cute town, but nothing that special. I thought Bellagio was very nice - pretty, lots of restaurants. We didn't make it to Varenna.

Who did you end up booking with for your Florence apartment?

What age are your children Kaityln?

I am not a big fan of Lake Como - especially not in the winter. I think the only lake that is not too depressing in bad weather is Lake Maggiore and it is the only only that would be interesting for children at any time.

A boat ride around the three islands (weather permitting) is colourful and interesting for them. Isola Madre has a beautiful villa with a puppet's room and a doll's room etc. as well as gardens and birds (especially peacocks) like the ones on Isola Bella.

I will ask a friend to work out things of interest for children in Milan if you'd like.

Helen, you have a point! A day in Milan, especially at that time of year, might be the most fun.

They are ages 2 & 7. We have been debating whether to go closer to viewing the Alps before heading to Villa Malpensa, but I don't have a good idea yet for the distances involved.

The older one especially prefers outside activities as opposed to city ones.

Pauline:

We booked with Windows on Tuscany. ( www.windowsontuscany.com )
I had found the rental on RentVillas.com, but saved $900 when I discovered I could book it with WOT instead.

We couldn't be more excited, with the exception of the laundry issues. Children especially make a lot of laundry. Our rental in London was a washer/dryer combo that took 3 hrs, but is so much better than line drying.

Kaitlyn

On our Fall trip I made a point of asking everyone I could who lived there how they did their laundry. For me this would be a big issue with living full time in Italy. Most people I talked to said they have only a washer and hang their clothes to dry. They do not use a commerical laundry. One person said they sent their sheets and towels to a laundry. Gary from TuscanHouse demonstrated his amazing technique for ironing his shirts (he can do a shirt in a minute). People also said that you make clothes "last longer". You wear outfits for several days, you have an outfit just for cooking (an excellent idea - we ruin all our t-shirts with olive oil splashes).

When we are in Italy, we wear clothes longer before washing than we do at home.

Judith and Nathalie both have washers that are also dryers, but both said that electricity is so expensive that they only use the dryers in the middle of winter when things won't dry when hung on the line.

If you are staying in Florence, I think it would be a good idea to either find a laundromat and do your laundry there or find a reasonably priced lavanderia where they do your laundry. But with the later check prices carefully - we have paid from $25 for a load of laundry in Porto Santo Stefano to $100 in Sorrento (a huge mistake because we didn't ask how much it would cost when we dropped it off).

I think that one of the reasons Italy keeps going the way it does is the women working behind the scenes. Electricity is expensive, so they don't have dryers - no problem, the women hang everything to dry and iron everything by hand (or use chemical fabric softeners to make the clothes softer after drying). Showers are designed with no shower stalls or curtains - no problem, the women come in and wash the bathroom floor after it floods. The wonderful two hour lunches at home - no problem, the women spend the morning shopping and cooking.

Congrats on find the place for so much less! I am surprised because Rentvillas represents Cuendet - probably the largest agency in Italy. I would have thought their prices would not be undercut by local agencies.

If you end up going to Lake Como, I think Bellagio is the best choice of towns to visit. There are many small shops and restaurants there, as well as a lovely lakeside walkway. I don't know if it's open in winter, but there's a beautiful palazzo garden (Villa Melzi) you could tour. Varenna is *very* small, and not very "touristy." Both towns are built into the sides of the hills, so there are lots of stairs and climbing involved. (I mention this in case your two-year old will be in a stroller.)
If you opt for a day in Milan, something that I love to do is take the elevator to the top of the Duomo. The view from there is fantastic, and it's a thrill to be walking around among the statues and gargoyles. The nearby Galleria, with its gorgeous stained glass rooftop and mosaic floors, is a great place for lunch and people watching.
The Sforza Castle would be a good choice for an afternoon outing. The grounds are extensive, with broken marble statuary placed at interesting locations around and about. Touring the castle interior gives a new perspective on life in bygone days. The museum itself is free and houses Michaelangelo's last sculpture, the Rondanini Pietà. Rooms are full of tapestries, sculptures, and musical instruments. There's a large public park - Parco Sempione - at one end of the castle grounds with acres of greenery. The immense Arco della Pace (begun by Napoleon) is located at the far end of the park.
Good luck with your planning -

I can't believe I forgot about one of my very favorite towns in Italy - Bergamo! Less than an hour east of Milan, it's a *delightful* place. I spent several days there in March, and was thoroughly charmed by the "old city" on the top of the hill. You could probably park in the lower (newer) city, then take the funicular up to the upper city. Bergamo was the westernmost outpost of the Venetian empire, and there are still winged lion marble reliefs representing Venice around the town. It seems to be well known for delicious pastries - which I can attest to. :-) I had my daily fix of gelato at La Marianna, on Colle Aperto.
The small historical museum contains some fascinating remains of the earliest occupants of the region.
The Rocca is surrounded by a lovely memorial garden, with stunning views across the terra cotta rooftops of Bergamo to the Lombardy plain.

Here's a website with more info. http://www.eurotravelling.net/italy/bergamo/bergamo.htm

Thanks Colleen! I was trying to remember which town you liked in that area. I remembered reading about it in your trip report, but could not remember the town. If you fly into Milan, maybe this is a good town to spend your first couple of nights.

Belligio is a good place to go but I really don't know how long that would take from Milan--maybe too long.

To answer the question about hiring a car rather than a taxi to return to Villa Malpensa--the reason is you can see the hotel from the airport, in fact, it would be a very easy, short walk under normal circumstances. For this reason, it is not fair to taxi drivers who have waited for a fare to Milan or wherever to have to get back in line for another long wait. What you do is find the car hire desk in the arrival area and negotiate the ride to the hotel--which will probably be about $20--ridiculous but you are at their mercy. It gets even more frustrating as you arrive at the door two minutes later. If you arrive in the morning, before 11 (I think, you can get the hotel's shuttle service. The problem then is that you are left without a car with nothing to do. So--that is the story. The other option is to wait to turn the car in at the airport before departure. That would be very easy to do if the return desk is not crowded. When we returned our car there was no one in line so it took about 5 seconds--just handed the key and went on our way. We turned our car in the night before, paid the $20 and then took the hotel shuttle in the morning. I would do it that way again and just plan on the loss of $20. It is nice to be let out right at the check-in area.

Another bit of info. It was very easy at Malpensa to get the customs stamp for the VAT return. Don't know if that is always true but when we did it, again there was no one in line so I just walked up, the man stamped it and that was that. I should say we were in Italy 9/18 - 10/26 when travel was being heavily impacted by 9/11. This might account for the short lines.