Advice on where to stay near MXP and our Italian itinerary

Looks like a nice pace. Although I am not a fan of two-night stays, I think I understand why you are doing that. Your time in Greece will hopefully be without moving around all the time.

When you come to Milan from Athens you can stay downtown just for a fun last night and dinner, see the Duomo. There is an easy train between the airport (MXP) and downtown. But I wonder, are you flying into Malpensa from Greece, or Linate? And how early is early for your return flight?

Thanks Laurel! We are going to be in one place in Greece with a couple of nights in Athens before flying back to Italy. We are flying in/out of MXP. We will arrive around 4 p.m. and then depart on the 10th around 11 a.m. I was wondering if we had time to go into the city or further afield, or if we should just stay around Malpensa and rest. I don't want to stay in a generic airport hotel for our last night in Italy, though. I've been looking around at bed and breakfasts and smaller inns. I imagine we'll be pretty worn out after traveling for 18 days, but still feel compelled to pack more in, though! Trying to figure out what is feasible and not too hectic.

Not knowing what 'late afternoon' is, and what time your 'morning' flight is, makes giving a suggestion a challenge.

Perhaps select a hotel near the airport, leave your stuff there and spend the evening/dinner in Milan, and be ready for your departure without a great deal of stress.

Regardless of what you choose to do, staying at a hotel near the airport , saves you having to drag your luggage around

I would have started in Rome, then Florence then Venice. All three cities are too important to miss. I would save Bologna and Verona until the next trip and add Lake Garda, the Ferrari Experience and Lamborghini factory tour to it.
In this case, Greece breaks the camel's back. Other than the Acropolis, we didn't even enjoy Athens. It is Crete, Santorini and the popular islands that we enjoyed.
Backtracking to Milan to catch a flight home is going to be expensive and time consuming.

Why are you flying out of Milan? Why not just leave from Athens?

I would have started in Rome, then Florence then Venice.

Hey David, it's their trip! Not everyone wants to go to Rome! I like that they are staying north and not trying to do everything.

I agree: spend the last night in the city, see the Duomo, take a walk, have dinner.

You can certainly take the train from MXP to the city to spend your last night, then go back to MXP by train. The hotels near the train station are nice. We particularly like Hotel Berna although we'll be at Hotel Garda this year.

Thanks, all! The itinerary was driven largely by Delta Skymiles and cost effective ways to get to Athens without flying through JFK. It was also going to cost more miles to fly out of Athens on the tail end, so that's how we ended up coming back to Italy. I played with the Delta website for days and so many different scenarios and was able to get two tickets completely covered at 70K miles each. So, that's why we're flying out of Milan. Verona happened rather by accident as well. I had hoped to fly out of Bologna but the flight times would not work with our schedule so I found an even cheaper flight on Aegean Airlines directly to Athens from there. I figure we'll have a couple of hours to stroll around and have lunch before our afternoon flight. I do hate to miss Rome, but at least I've been there before and we will have plenty of big, ancient city action in Athens.

So, things I have left to decide: where to stay in Milan, how and when to purchase train tickets to get around Italy (there or here online), which car museum to visit (leaning toward Ferrari because it looks easiest to reach via train and Modena looks cool), and in general how to see LOTS of stuff but not wear ourselves out. Thankfully, much of our time in Greece will be spent lounging on the beach! :)

Thanks again for your feedback and any advice that may help me narrow down what to see/do, and how to handle trains/luggage, especially with kids in tow, would be helpful.

So, things I have left to decide: where to stay in Milan, how and when to purchase train tickets to get around Italy (there or here online), which car museum to visit (leaning toward Ferrari because it looks easiest to reach via train and Modena looks cool), and in general how to see LOTS of stuff but not wear ourselves out.

See hotel recs above: Hotel Berna or Hotel Garda.

You can buy high-speed train tickets up to 120 days in advance. Venezia to Firenze is showing advanced purchase with great discounts on June 25. Be aware you are committing to a schedule as the reduced tickets are non-ref. I did not look at all of your connections but you can explore at www.trenitalia.com or www.trainline.eu.

If you are landing in Milano and traveling on to Venezia. do not buy your tickets until you land. At MXP you can buy tickets from the airport to Venezia Santa Lucia. You'll pay full price, but better that than buying tickets you have to throw away because you missed the train due to a late flight.

Ferrari Museum in Maranello is great! Plus some of the best pizza we've ever eaten (and we've eaten a lot of Italian pizza) is nearby at La Bufala. But we had a car. Might you rent one for the day?

The last time we were in Milan a few years ago we arrived by train from Florence early afternoon, checked our bags at the train station and spent the rest of the day seeing Milan. (We had been to Milan previously) We had a 9:30 a.m. flight home out of MXP the next morning so later that evening we took the Malpensa Express train to the airport. We had decided to stay that last night at First Hotel near the airport and their free shuttle (not sure if it is still free, thought I saw somewhere on helpline there is a fee now) picked us up and dropped us off the next morning too. First Hotel was fine but is a big box hotel with no charm. That being said, we were glad we had made that choice. We got to the airport about 6:30 a.m. and needed every bit of that time. On a previous trip we were flying out of Linate (which is closer to town) to Amsterdam and stayed at Hotel Berna which is a very easy walk from the train station and the breakfast buffet here was amazing! Would definitely stay here again. If you are not arriving at MXP from Greece until 4 p.m., I would definitely not try to go to Lake Maggiore or Lake Como. Not enough time. Have a great trip!