Milan's airport

Hi Ken - not familiar with CT at all. But I did fly in and out of Milan's airport (I'm assuming you mean Milapenese MXP). Flying in and collecting baggage was no problem at all. The issue might be the fact that the airport is about 30 minutes north of the city of Milan and the train station. But there are regular shuttles. Flying out of Milan was another story as I was completely confused by where to go for an international departure. It might have been just me though, so I won't say that the ENTIRE airport is "confusing" and should therefore be avoid. Having said all that, I'm not sure what RS was thinking when he wrote that because Milan seemed like a typical airport, and you're more likey to get better deals.

Milan Malpensa (MXP) is one of Italy's larger international gateways and as such it is bigger. It does have good access to the autostrade and transport. It is farther away from the CT than say Pisa (PSA). You may have limited choices for your flights though. For your proposed itinerary, you might want to take a look at flying into Venice Marco Polo (VCE) doing your time in the Dolomites, transferring to your Swiss hiking destination, getting to the CT and then flying out of either MXP or PSA home.

KEN, I was at Malpensa / MXP a few months ago and it's a larger airport so that's perhaps why it's been labelled as "confusing". I had no trouble navigating my way through the airport, finding the carousels and buying my ticket for the Malpensa Shuttle (the ticket machine was conveniently located next to the Carousels). Milano Centrale (rail station) would fit the definition of "confusing" better! Pisa is a fairly small airport, so tends to be more "user friendly". One thing to consider is the availability of flights to whichever airports you're considering. You'll have a greater choice of flights to MXP than the others. Given your location, you'll probably find that that your flight will stop in Frankfurt (or other large hub) and then you'll have to change planes for your destination airport. If you're using "code share" flights, your luggage will be delivered to your final destination. As your primary locations for this trip are Switzerland and the Dolomites, my suggestion would be to use open jaw flights to (for example) Zurich and return from either MXP or VCE (or even Munich for that matter). Happy travels!

Thanks for the responses. We were hoping to use Frequent flyer miles for this trip so I don't know if the open jaws thing will be allowed or not.

There are many good things about Milan Malpensa. Larger airport and more U.S. flights coming in. IMHO, the issues are 1) its an hour bus ride to the main train station and, 2) it's 2.5hrs to 3hrs from the main train station to most places you might want to visit (CT, Venice and Florence). Many travelers have to spend their last night in Milan or the airport itself (www.sleepinginairports.com) to make sure they can get their early flight. Of course, they do this in Venice and Rome (Fiumicino) as well. If they spend their last night in the CT or Venice, they won't make their early flight. You might note that you can get to Zurich Flughafen (airport) from Lauterbrunnen in about the same time it would take you to get to Milan Malpensa from the CT. As Ken suggests, you could fly into one city and out another.