Milan & Rome

Between customs, baggage, and the hour it takes to get from MXP
to downtown, my guess is that you get to your hotel 11-noon.

Definitely get skiptheline tickets for Duomo and the rooftop. Wander
through the Galleria next door and have a gelato. If you can find a
ticket for the Last Supper, go see that. That might be it before jet lag
sets in. If you're an opera fan, La Scala is a couple of blocks away too.

It's about 3 hrs from Milan to Rome. So if you leave Fri morning, you
have a half day at best Friday + Saturday and maybe a bit of time for
a nice walk Sunday.

I think it depends on how well you deal with jetlag as to how much you
can actually see.

Assuming you are coming from the US, most of Thursday will be shot because of jet leg. About the only thing you have time for a quick visit to the piazza and the big cathedral, Duomo. You might work in the Last Supper but you do need an advance reservation. If you arrive at 8.10, you probably can be in Milan's Centrale Station by 11.00. I would story the luggage in the train station and catch the subway to the piazza. There are restaurants around the piazza including a very nice cafeteria for lunch. Spend a couple hours and get to the roof of the cathedral. It is important to get as much sunlight as you can with min inside activity. Get back to the station, and be on the 4pm train to Rome. The train will put you to sleep so plan accordingly. Stay in one of the hotels near Termini for convenience and for catching the train to Civit......, the port.

Hi there, gosh this is a short spurt of time, agree with @Frank, I would absolutely prioritize Rome over Milan & catch a later train if you can stand that weirdly out of body sensation after a transcontinental flight. Actually, IMHO, I would skip Milan entirely, it's a big busy city that despite the cathedral & historical center, in no way compares with the utterly amazing Rome. I've just copied this from answering another request about Rome, but here goes -

I would suggest doing a deep-dive ahead of your trip to look at what you REALLY want to see and how much time you want to spend on your feet seeing monuments & museums versus a relaxing meal, gelato or taking an evening stroll with the throngs through the historical center! Library to look at scads of guide books? If you have a short list (such as "I MUST see the Sistine Chapel"), then look at the tours recommended here, I would personally go for the earliest possible time before the floodgates open, some run by the Vatican itself. What about a food walking tour to savor (pun intended) areas of interest & get access to some amazing food? Trastevere Sunset tours seem to be a fav of forum posters. See if Hotel Smeraldo in the historical center has rooms available, 3-star with excellent recommendations & easily walkable to the main sites. There's a taxi stand a block away. Lots of cobblestones so wear comfortable walking shoes & have a wonderful trip! PS, The Timeshifter app helped quite a bit with jet lag, more here - https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/jet-lag-i-tried-the-timeshifter-app

While I think the Duomo in Milan is a special building, you'd be seeing it after a possibly-sleepless overnight flight. I never want to do anything on my arrival day except sleep, so I wouldn't plan to do anything except walk around outside in the daylight. On a short trip, I'd be best served by moving on to Rome on my arrival day. Some other folks handle the overnight flight better than I do.

You're getting very different opinions, so you also need to know your own strengths and interests.

We flew into MXP from the West Coast US last May and arrived around 1pm. We were at our hotel near Termini station by about 3 or 3:30, but everything went super smoothly with luggage/passport control/train catching. We walked to the city center and visited the Duomo and the rooftop (we didn't have as much time as we would have liked, but it's what our schedule allowed). We then wandered around the central area, stopped for apertivo, wandered around some more, had dinner, etc. We really had no issues with being too tired (I think we were really excited, which was perfect) -- I was concerned about that but it was not a problem at all.

The next day we visited Centro Storico and LOVED it. It really, really helped with centering the geography and history of the city. If we'd had time for a tour we would have done so. We then caught a 2pm train to Lago Orta. By this afternoon we were tired :).

I'm not a fan of cramming in all the big things when I visit a place. If that means I only see one big thing, then that's how it goes. I'd much rather have more leisure to just walk around or visit a park or linger looking at buildings or artwork. But that's ME. Other people are very different. So I'd figure out what do you REALLY want to do and/or see in either or both of these cities and then plan around that.

We're planning a trip to Rome (and Puglia) for next May and will be in Rome 3 nights (2.5 days). There's no way we can see all the things and I'm realizing that again I'd rather do a walking tour and definitely visit the Borghese Gallery to see Bernini over a Colosseum visit, if I have to choose.

Carrie

Just to keep things straight and less confusing for less experienced travelers. In Milan the main train station is called, Centrale or Milan Centrale. And the main station in Rome is called Termini. Technically speaking Milan is a terminal station but it is not referred to as a terminal station such as the main station in Rome is called.

Carrieleonard: you mentioned that you visited Duomo and the roof-top; did you previously purchase skip the line tickets?? It sounded like you just wandered over and went in......

Carrieleonard: you mentioned that in Milan, you "visited Duomo and the roof top".....did you purchase tickets prior to your visit? It sounded like you just walked in.....

We purchased tickets prior to arrival (from home in the US). It's really straight forward how to do so on the Duomo's website. Because we were going to be there in May we didn't want to risk selling out -- it was worth it for us to risk not making it due to travel delays.