Buon Giorno, Italia!

I'll be saying buongiorno to Italia 24 hours after you...I arrive at MXP on May 31. Sounds like your plans are in great shape and you will no doubt have a great trip. A little input for your planning process:

Trains: If you are confirmed for your travel days, and want to buy train tickets early for the best prices, they should become available on or soon after February 1. (I'm counting down the days on that myself.) But while you will save money, you are locked into that specific date and time with a non-refundable and non-exchangeable ticket (just like airlines - flexibility costs extra). For example, your Milan to Genova route would cost €18 at the restricted discount price, €41 at the flexible full price per person.

Cars: Like many others on this site, I always book my car through AutoEurope before I go. They're easy to deal with, provide clear explanations about insurance options, and I can prepay in advance to lock in a good price. They are a consolidator, so you can reserve a Hertz car through them. After a lot of looking though, I went with Europcar for both my rentals since the insurance package offered by them is more comprehensive. Hertz's zero-deductible package did not include glass, tires and undercarriage coverage, and I consider those the most likely parts to get damaged. Now I don't have to stand at the rental counter and worry that I'm buying too much or too little coverage.

Sightseeing: It's a great idea to take a day tour in bigger cities to get oriented and have the highlights pointed out to you before you start exploring your special interests independently. Rick recommends some in his book, and TripAdvisor has a lot of day tours with reviews. I use both to select mine. I'd only book ahead for Florence. For Genova, Siena and other smaller places you can decide what you want to do when you get there.

Logistics: Packing, cell phones etc. - there is more information here than you could ever need. I've found current answers to all my questions before I could even ask them. It's a great community.

Enjoy the heck out of your time in Italy. I certainly plan to!

Grahame,

A few thoughts come to mind......

To begin with, for driving in Italy each driver will require the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. You'll also have to be vigilant to avoid the dreaded ZTL (limited traffic) areas which exist in many Italian towns and cities (hefty fines!). DO NOT drive in Florence as the city is just about saturated with automated ZTL cameras (Roberto or one of the others can provide further information on where those are).

As you probably know from your time living in Italy, there are also some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when using trains and other public transit in Italy.

You will have a great time! We used AirBnB in Verona, Lucca, and Munich. Cheap and wonderful! Loved meeting the locals.

Yes, Ken, an international DL is definitely on my priorities list. Looks like I can get one for $15 from AAA.

And yes, I've been reading about these ZTL nightmares, and that's why I'm hoping to get to the Hertz by the airport. I can jump right on the autostrada from there and be able to bypass any of the urban driving zones. Besides, our plan is to divide our time into "City Life" in Genoa and "Country Life" in Tuscany. So we won't be doing any driving in the city at all. The only things we'll be doing in Florence this time around are renting the car and catching the train.

And thank you, Nelly, for the suggestions about coverage, and about the rental. Sounds like it might be worth the extra money just to have the peace of mind of knowing you're covered!

Charlotte, that's great to hear you had a good experience. It's our first time with AirBnB, but so far it's been a good experience for us, too.

A little info for your stay in Genoa ... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/travel/30hours.html

Grahame,

Good to hear that you have the IDP and ZTL issues sorted. As you'll be "catching the train", don't forget about the issues there also.

Actually, I don't recall any. When I was living here I travelled mostly locally, but I don't recall any issues with tickets. That was in 2003-2004, so maybe things have changed, or maybe I just wasn't exposed to them. What issues are you talking about?

I am curious about the two nights in Gallarate. Depending on your flight arrival time, you could go right to Genova (in Italian - important to know for trains) as it is only about a 3-hour trip. Then you could add that night elsewhere in your itinerary. Also, on return, I would stay in Milano and head to the airport from there, unless your flight is ridiculously early. We've stayed in Milano overnight and headed to MXP my train for a 10:30 flight. no problem.

We are spending the night in Gallarate.
Why?
You will likely arrive early in the day. You can go directly to wherever you want. When I fly to Milan I go to Florence (my home) on the same day of arrival.
Besides if you want to spend the night not far from the airport, at least go to an interesting place. Stresa, Milan, not Gallarate.

We'll stay in Genoa for a few days
Why?
Can't you find a prettier place to visit the coast? I know it's just my opinion, but I wouldn't put Genoa on the rank of beautiful cities to visit in Italy. There are of course a few interesting things to see (few), but I'd stay in a smaller towns and maybe visit Genoa for a day from there. Besides the Cinque Terre (a little farther east about 65-90 min from Genoa), there is Moneglia, Camogli, Santa Margherita, all under one hour from Genoa.

Milan to Gallarate, and then spend the night there
Why?
Two better choices are:
1. Keep the car (instead of returning in Florence). Drive to Stresa along the lake Maggiore for the last 2 nights before the flight. Return the car at MXP on the morning of departure.
2. Return the car in Florence. Take the train to Milan and spend 1 or 2 nights in Milan before flying out. The Malpensa Express train from Milano Cadorna station can take you to MXP in just over 35 min.

To rent a car use a consolidator:
www.autoeurope.com
or their sister company
www.kemwel.com
They work primarily with Avis-Budget, Europcar, Hertz. Check all their options and choose the best offer.
I recommend selecting the no deductible insurance (aka 'no insurance excess') option on their site, for peace of mind.

Laurel, to answer your question, the reason we made arrangements the way we did is because we get into MXP at 10:40pm, and after potentially an hour in customs we didn't want to then take a 2-hour train ride (or even a 1-hr train ride) before arriving at a place to sleep. The guy whose place we're renting in Gallarate will pick us up at the airport. We'll sleep, then catch the train to Milan the next day (there's one train that goes from Gallarate to Genoa, and it leaves at 6:57am...not interested in that), and then to Genoa from Milan.

On the way back we'll catch the train from Florence back to Milan, and then from Milan to Gallarate for the night. The next morning our host will bring us back to the airport. So basically, it's just a crash pad, because I don't want to feel rushed getting to the airport.

Roberto, I'm glad you love your beautiful country, man. But we planned our trip around places we thought would be interesting, and Genoa looks interesting to us. We don't want the tourist/resort experience. We want to experience a variety of ways of life, even if it's only for a week or two. As for why we didn't choose a place more interesting than Gallarate, it's because at midnight, with jet lag and being tired as hell, I'm not going to care where I'm sleeping. I'll just want to sleep. Gallarate is just a crash pad to recover from the flight. So I'd rather not care about Gallarate than not care about Milan.

This is the first of many trips we'll be taking to Italy, so the way I see it, we'll have PLENTY of time to check out those awesome places you sent us. So thank you for that, Roberto!

If you land that late, then it makes sense to stay nearly the airport. Gallarate is only 10 min away. I used to stay there overnight the night before flying to the US in the early 1990's. There was no Malpensa Express then, and the bus from Milan to the airport was almost 1 hour, so staying in Gallarate made sense. Not much to do in town, especially in winter, when I usually traveled there. But I was one overnight there in Summer, and there were a lot of people in that small but lively "downtown". Nowadays I prefer to stay in Stresa, only 45 min away.
I am still not in love with Genoa. There are some great restaurants and some interesting spots, but simply don't like that city. Maybe never will.

Your reasoning for staying in Gallarate makes sense, Grahame. It's nice to see someone have a "We'll be back" mentality instead of trying to do it all! Buon viaggio!

Roberto, that makes perfect sense. There are many people here in the States that that love places like Dallas. I'm sure there are some great things about that city (I did once see a wonderful performance of Cyrano de Bergerac in the park during my one trip to Dallas), but I've had my fill for a lifetime. So I can't begrudge you your opinions.

And Laurel, yes! We definitely want to return. At some point I'd love to show my lady where I lived when I was here last...Aviano is a sweet little village right at the foothills of the Dolomites, and I spend the better part of a year there. We'll have to catch the train into Venice, and we absolutely want to explore the South of Italy as well. So we'll be back for sure. :)

Hi Grahame,

I understand people's reluctance to recommend Genoa and I would not recommend it for the average traveler who wants to see the tourist sites, but it seems that you are looking for something different, so I say go for it. We have been there several times as we have relatives who live there. It doesn't sound like you'll be there too long so I would recommend going to Piazza Ferrari and from there walk into the old center, Cannetto Lungo, which are the characteristic narrow dark streets of Old Genoa. Otherwise, a leisurely walk down the promenade on Corso Italia ending in Boccadase, which is a colorful old cove area that has some seafood restaurants and a really good gelato place.

The city has some museums, a big indoor marketplace off the Via XX settembre, and an aquarium. The pastel-colored apartment buildings which dot the hillsides are characteristic of Genoa. Wherever you end up, I recommend eating two things while in Genoa: fresh focaccia from a bakery, and pasta with pesto. These are foods of Genoa. You can eat them elsewhere in Italy but they will not be the same. Enjoy your trip!