Milan (Malpensa) to Cagliari, Sardinia and train to Varenna, Italy

Train schedules are not yet published for fall, but when they are, you can see them at www.trenitalia.com for most trains, but not for the Malpensa Express airport train, which runs twice per hour. Currently, and probably in the future, trains depart hourly from Milano Centrale station to Varenna-Esino at about 20 minutes after each hour and take one hour.

I would plan to be at the airport to check in one hour ahead of your flight within Italy, unless the airline specifies earlier.

Esther,
I have not been to Sardinia but I assume you need to be at the airport at least an hour before your flight.

It's very easy to get to Varenna via train. You will need to travel to Milan's central station then transfer to another train to get to Varenna.

When you arrive at MXP, go to the train ticket counter & purchase your tickets there.

You will need tickets for the Malpensa Express train to Milano Centrale (Milan's Central Station) & tickets to Varenna.

When you arrive to Milano Centrale( track #1) you will go to the big electronic board to see what track # your next train (heading to Varenna-Esino) will be at.

You can check train schedules on this website: http://www.trenitalia.com

once you're on the trenitalia website, click on the British flag (top right) to view in English.
Then you will want to type;

From: Milano Centrale

To: Varenna- Esino

There are trains leaving for Varenna at 12:20pm; 1:20pm; 2:20pm and 4:20pm and every hour after that.

1. One hour at least. It's a domestic flight. But which airport do you depart from? The Milan area has 3 international airports. Linate is the closest to the city center. The others are not that close to the city, so you need to take that into consideration. Actually if you fly to Sardinia just after Orta San Giulio, and you fly out of MXP, you could potentially move a short distance from Orta San Giulio to Arona, on lake Maggiore, which is much closer to the MXP airport than Milan itself.

2. The Malpensa Express train will take you to Milano Centrale station. From there you catch the train to Varenna-Esino, which is along the Milano-Lecco-Sondrio-Tirano line.

You can buy tickets at the airport. The railway from MXP to Milan and the one from Milan Centrale to Varenna are both run by the Trenord Rail company. For the timetable you can look below. Use a date in the next 7 days to have an idea of the train times.
http://www.trenord.it/en/timetable/timetable.aspx
Enter:
From: MALPENSA AEROPORTO
To: VARENNA ESINO
It's about 2.5 to 3 hrs journey.

Esther,

I forgot to mention that the Malpensa Express (ME) train goes to 2 different train stations in Milan; Milano Centrale & Cadorna.

Make sure you take the ME that goes to Milano Centrale so you can then transfer to the train heading to Varenna.

Would add that you should leave Milan's train station at least 2 hours before flight time-me I'd do at least 2 and 1/2. The "express" can take anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes to get to the airport and be sure to validate your ticket. Personally, i think it would be cutting it short to check in an hour before and then expect to fly through security and to your gate-plus, am pretty sure you'll be bused to your plane so boarding will probably start 30 minutes before flight time, and, you will fall in love with Sardinia and its people.

if you don't have housing figured out in Varenna yet, in this thread I describe the place we stayed PLUS the most wonderful lake side café......

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/home-rentals-in-lake-como-area