Departing Malpensa, Milan @ 9:40 am for the US, should we stay at an airport Hotel?

We had a morning flight home from Milan and stayed at an airport hotel. It saves a bit of hassle and nerves on your last day. We stayed at the Cardano Hotel for 80 Euros. A good, basic hotel and it was good to see an elevator after 28 days in Italy with none. They will pick you up at the Airport (Malpensa Express location) and then take you back to the airport the next morning.

Nancy, my response is virtually word-for-word identical with Bob's, except that I stayed at the First Hotel Malpensa near the airport, about the same price, and also found that to be just fine. I'll add that it should be less of a hassle to get from Milano to the airport on Sunday evening than it would be early Monday morning during the workday rush hour.

The Malpensa Express train from the Cadorna station takes only 36 minutes, in case you prefer to spend the last night in the city. There is a train every half hour. Malpensa is in the middle of nowhere, so your last night would be inside the hotel eating at tho hotel restaurant. But it's up to you.

We did NOT eat our last dinner in Italy in an airport hotel. The Cardano does not have their own restaurant. Instead they have an arrangement with a local restaurant that will pick you up and bring you back to the hotel. Not the best and definitely not the worst dinner we had in our 28 days in Italy. Or, you could have dinner in Milan and then go to the airport hotel.

I have not departed from Malpensa in many many years, but when I did (before the rail link to the airport even existed and the only way from Milan to Malpensa was at least a 1 hour long bus ride) I used to spend the night before the flight to the US in Gallarate.
Gallarate is 5 or 10 min to MXP (via shuttle bus from the station or via taxi) and it had some decent restaurant choices. Also the center of town was rather lively, at least on summer evenings. Of course Gallarate is not Rome or not even Milan, but I preferred it to an anonymous hotel in the middle of the hay fields at Malpensa. Of course at the time, staying in the city of Milan the night before an early morning flight wasn't a good option at all given the absence of the fast train link they have nowadays.
If you want to try Gallarate I used to stay at the hotel "La Nuova Rotaia", just a short walk from the station. An even nicer hotel is the Astoria, also close by.

Malpensa Express leaves the city as early as 4:30 a.m., but you shouldn't have to catch it before 6:00.