Train from Malpensa to Verona?

You can get a train at Malpensa but it appears that you always have to change trains at Milano Centrale. The airport is basically west of the city and Verona is east.

Thank you, acraven. We will be visiting the Veneto and the Emilia-Romano ans are considering doing the whole trip without a car, by train only. This would be a first for us. Do you have any thoughts on it?

Train service is extensive, so you're likely to find trains to nearly anywhere you want to go. You can see actual schedules and connection points either through the DB link at Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online (doesn't include the Milan airport train and doesn't sell tickets, but easy to see many schedules at once) or www.trenitalia.com, which also sell most of the tickets. See ticket tips on our Italy rail page. You can find rail maps online and in most guidebooks.

We've spent about 30 weeks in Italy over 11 trips and have rented a car once - for four days. We love the train travel, with an occasional bus for a smaller place. Go for it!

For northern Italy, trains work well for many itineraries. Where exactly do you want to go?

mm,

It's very easy to get from MXP to Verona. I assume you're arriving at Terminal 1 on a flight from the U.S.?

You'll first need to take the Malpensa Express (train) from the airport to Milano Centrale. You can buy tickets at the airport station, but a few important points to note....

• there are two routes for the M.E., with one going to Milano Centrale and one going to Milano Cadorna. You must be sure to buy a ticket to Centrale and board the correct train. Travel time from MXP to Milan is 52 minutes.
• With a locally purchased ticket, you must validate (time & date stamp) the ticket prior to boarding the train, or you'll risk hefty fines which will be collected on the spot.

You'll arrive in Milan on tracks (Binari) 1 or 2 and will have to walk into the main hall to find your next train. From Milano Centrale, a busy and bustling station, you'll transfer to the next train to Verona which may be either an Eurocity or Freccia high speed train. The faster trains have compulsory seat reservations which are specific to train, date and departure time so the tickets can only be used on the one train listed on the ticket. If you board the wrong train by mistake, again hefty fines collected on the spot! The tickets will specify the Coach (Carrozza) and Seat No's (Posti) where you must sit. Travel time from Milan to Verona is ~1H:23M (EC) or ~1H:13M (FrecciaRossa). Note that your destination station will be Verona Porta Nuova.

From the station in Verona, you can use Bus or Taxi to reach your hotel. If you're arriving after an international flight, I'd recommend using a Taxi.

There are also hourly Regionale trains from Milano Centrale to Verona at 25 past the hour and take 1 hour and 50 minutes. Fares are always the same, 12.75 EUR 2nd class and 18.90 EUR 1st class. No seat reservations are available and you MUST validate your tickets.

Yes, we are arriving at Terminal 1 from U.S. Hoping to go to Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Venice, Ravenna, Bologne, Modena, Parma, back to Milan. I've read that there is extensive and reliable train service in this part of Italy. Does anyone disagree? Thanks to all who have given us information on this topic.

The only problem I ran into was when I stayed in Bologna and took daytrips to Ferrara, Parma, Modena, and Ravenna. There was certainly train service on these routes; the problem was the timing. For instance, there might be a train at 8:30 AM (earlier than I wanted) and then not another one until 10:30 AM (too late). Since many sights in these smaller cities close for several hours in the middle of the day, I had to make that earlier train, to have enough time at my destination to see things. This meant I couldn't luxuriate over breakfast, and I happened to be staying at a hotel (the Commercianti) with one of the most fabulous breakfast spreads I've ever seen.

However, if you're not looking to take daytrips, you should be fine (there were multiple trains on these routes, just not at the time I wanted). If you are, just check the schedules before assuming a daytrip is easy.

Thank you, Harold, for the information about the timing of the trains. Again, I want to thank all of you who gave us such informative suggestions.