My family and a small group of friends are flying out of Malpensa and wanted to stay near the airport but not directly nearby...and I noticed on the "Venere" web site a place called "La Vecchia Portetta"...it seems nearby, but in a typical little village called Ogellio...I can't seem to get the number for them and can't seem to book with them on this Venere web site.
Can anybody give me some info about this place and why I'm not getting a response to my reservation request?
Thanks

What time is your flight? If its late morning or later, you might think about staying in Orta San Guilio...that's what I'll be doing (my flight out of MXP is at 12:20 but I'd planned to do it when considering an earlier 10:30 flight as well.) Its about an hour from Malpensa. Others on the forum recommended it to me when I posed the same question, and it looks wonderful!

The Villa Malpensa is the ONLY hotel really close to the airport that I've ever found.

Sesto Calende is just 25 minutes from Malpensa and is a lovely little town near the tip of Lago Maggiore right on the Ticino river. There are several nice restaurants and wine bars in the town and on on Wed. mornings there is a very nice market. There are two decent 3* hotels there - The Hotel David (0331 920182) and the Hotel Tre Re (0331 924229). The Tre Re is the nicer of the two with a lovely veranda overlooking the Ticino.

If you want to spoil yourself - just 10 minutes farther away from the airport is the beautiful Relais Chateau hotel and restaurant(Il Sole di Ranco website) Il Sole di Ranco located in the village of Ranco right on Lago Maggiore.

Janet,Where are you staying in Orta? Make sure you ask directions to the airport from the hotel.We took a way that we never would have guessed from the map,I think it was the exit past the official Malpensa exit on the autostrada.It was 45 minutes(OK I do drive sort of fast,but is supposed to save time)Anyone know the name of that exit? It leads to a highway that runs right into Malpensa.I will try to figure this out for you.What car rental company? The return is very close to the airport terminals maybe 5 minutes walk. RR

Hi -- the hotel website says the hotel is 15 minutes from MXP. Website is www.portetta.it/index-en.html and there is a reservation form on it for you to submit by email or to download and fax. (look at the top options, above hotel photo)

Hope this helps!

Hi All...thanks for the info.
We are leaving at 10:15 am from Malpensa...and we have two children in tow..plus 5 other people...so we wanted to be somewhat close to the airport.
I did manage to get a hold of someone at a hotel called "La Vecchia Portetta" in the village of Oleggio. www.portetta.it
Has anyone heard of this place/village?
It seems nearby the airport but not so nearby that our last day in Italy is a drag!
Anyway, this hotel looks cute..and they brag about a good, typical restaurant plus it's not expensive..103 euros for a double room.
I'm wondering, though, why none of you has heard of it?
I like the idea also, Craig, of staying near Lago Maggiore. Thanks for the tip.
How far is Stresa from Malpensa?
I'm thinking it might be nice to make a small trip there once we settle in in Oleggio...for our last day.

thanks,
Rachelle

Stresa to Malpensa is about 30 miles.

>>Stresa to Malpensa is about 30 miles<< But not necessarily fast miles. In my experience, Sesto Calende to Malpensa is 20-25 minutes in the best of times [when you don't have to detour around Somma Lombardo because of the weekly market). And Stresa is at least 20 minutes or more from Sesto Calende along the lake road, which can be slow. I would leave an hour for a trip from my hotel in Stresa to the car dropoff at Malpensa just to be safe.

There is a route on the autostrada which you pick up in the hills above Stresa and it loops to the west on the way to the airport. It may or may not save any time.

Thanks Sally,
I had a heck of a time trying to reserve off this web site (for some reason the request never went through and some other hotels popped up instead of this one)...finally after searching around the internet, I found "La Vecchia Portetta's" email address (info:@portetta.it) and they got right back to me after I contacted them directly.
I guess we're going to give it a shot and hope for the best. It's reasonably priced and since I'm planning for a whole group of people, I don't want to stress them out with a high-priced hotel!
I go every year to Como and have never been to Stresa...so I suppose it's worth the trip on our last day. What do you think? A lot of people that I know that also go to Como (for a textile show in Cernobbio) suggest going there.
Rachelle

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Rainey:

Janet,Where are you staying in Orta? Make sure you ask directions to the airport from the hotel.We took a way that we never would have guessed from the map,I think it was the exit past the official Malpensa exit on the autostrada.It was 45 minutes(OK I do drive sort of fast,but is supposed to save time)Anyone know the name of that exit? It leads to a highway that runs right into Malpensa.I will try to figure this out for you.What car rental company? The return is very close to the airport terminals maybe 5 minutes walk. RR

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Robert, we are staying Hotel Santa Caterina Elena. We actually decided to extend our trip by a night so that we could have two nights in Orta! Hotel Orta had a minimum of a 3-night stay, btw. Just got the rental car voucher from Autoeurope..its Europcar. Any tips on getting to Malpensa will be appreciated. I'd planned to go on the ViaMichelin site and plot the route.

Hi Jim....I just was thinking to go to Stresa from our hotel in Oleggio for the day (Saturday)..for a day trip.
We are driving up from the Lake Trasimeno area that Saturday morning..getting the place in Oleggio, then going out on another adventure in Stresa. Is that going to be too much in one day? We should arrive in Oleggio around 1:00pm after checking out of our villa at 10:00 in Umbria (my husband in German and drives rather fast!)
We leave the next day(Sunday) from Oleggio...which looks fairly close to the airport.
Maybe just a quick trip to Lago Maggiore would suffice for the last day?
Rachelle

Janet,I checked Mappy
Mappy
These directions look the same,the exit is
Sesto Calende.Mappy says it takes 45 minutes which seems fairly resonable for 46.2 km or 28.64 miles.
I will try to comfirm this, at home I have a map with all the exits plotted.The main thing to keep in mind when driving is the name of the intermediate destination,best directions are
a series of destinations rather than street names
which offen are not even apparent(NO signs!)RR

>> We should arrive in Oleggio around 1:00pm after checking out of our villa at 10:00 in Umbria (my husband in German and drives rather fast!)<<

I want to make sure that I am not on the road that day...according to the super-optimistic Via Michelin, the trip to Oleggio from near Lago di Trasimeno is 300 miles and they estimate 4 1/2 hours.

Driving at that speed, you could probably get to Torino and back from Oleggio that afternoon.

Jim Zurer
Zurer Travel: Italian Trip Planning

We always stay in Como when flying out of Malpensa the next day - it's about 35 minutes to Malpensa - 4+ lanes all the way.

We prefer the last night in a lovely town with things to do, rather than an airport hotel.

We have some info on the web site:Italy: Planning - Arriving/Leaving from Milan Airport

Also try doing a search on this message board.

I don't know what directions (exits??) the internet gives for getting to Malpensa from Sesto Calende, but you just zip down the Sempione to Somma Lombardo (maybe 15 minutes) turn right and you are are the car rental return in about another 10 minutes. We live right by Sesto and it never takes more than 30 minutes to get to Malpensa. Sundays are the worst day for traffic on the Sempione as there are so many Milanese returning home.

ha, ha Jim, you're quite funny! Well...looks like we're in for a ride...and with the kids..argh! Oh well, we'll try to make the best of it...maybe stop along the way. Any suggestions?
And I have finally decided to stay at this place I found called "La Vecchia Portetta"...it looks really quite cute, typical and claims that the restaurant is quite good. On the map, the village it is in, Oleggio, is very nearby Malpensa and could be a very good alternative to those "hotels near the airport" which I hate to stay at also. The gal, Ellen, who I contacted directly via email, at the hotel I think is German and was very good about getting back to me, gave me special accommodations (because of the two kids...also gave me a special price for a small family of 4 is 123 euros), and confirmed the reservation very promptly.
As for staying in Como...I will be there for 4 days prior to the trip down to Umbria (and have gone there every year for the past 9 years for a fabric show) and have seen practically everything around and don't feel like staying there once we return to Malpensa.
I am going to write a review of the hotel once we return...
I guess after our long drive there won't be time to travel to the Lago Maggiore area. Oh, well!
Rachelle