Travel from Milan to Venice

First, there is no such thing as Eurail. You are traveling on the Italian rail. Use bahn.de for schedule. Third - for one trip -- far, far cheaper for a point to point ticket. It is roughly a three/hour depending on the train. You will need to take the shuttle to the Milan train station, Central, and then the train to Venice.

Malpensa Shuttle Bus from Milan Malpensa Airport to Milan Central Train Station: 7.50 Euros and 1 hour. Milan Central Train Station to Venezia S. Lucia train station: 30.50 Euros and 2 hrs. 35 mins. on the hourly Eurostar-City train. If you're arriving at Milan Linate Airport, the airport bus to Milan Central Train Station costs 4 Euros and takes about 30 minutes.

Just did this trip in October. We took the bus from MXP to Centrale. Traffic was horrible. In retrospect, I would have taken the Malpensa Express train to Cadorna station, then the Metro to Centrale. But I just saw this on Rick's Italy s yesterday: Also, starting December 13, 2010, a second Malpensa Express service will serve Milan Central Station (where you can connect to trains throughout Italy operated by the national railways), separate from the line running to Milan Cadorna Station (where you can connect to local service on the Ferrovie Nord private railways). The new service to Centrale station will offer a train every 30 minutes, also stopping at Milan Porta Garibaldi station, with total travel time of 41 minutes. During rush hours, services will also stop at Milano Bovisa station and Saronno Centrale, extending total travel time to 47 minutes. We took the MXP Express back to the airport when we departed and it was 11 euros per person. It should be much easier now assuming you are not traveling until after Dec 13. You can buy your Trenitalia tickets at Milano Centrale. There's a bit of a line as it is a very busy station, but shouldn;t take more than 30 minutes to get through it an buy your tickets. You can go to Trenitalia's website in English (http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD) and figure out possible times, decide between first and second class, etc. The "Freccias" are fabulous! Keep an eye on Trenitalia's website. Sometimes they run specials. We were able to save 68 euros on a Rome to Milan segment by buying 15 days in advance. Right now they are still offering "Meno 15 and Meno 30" fares for advance purchase on some trains. You have to ask for the discounted fares. They won't offer them (in my experience).

The only issue with taking the train from Malpensa, then the metro to the train station is going up and down the stairs in the metro, with your luggage.

You are all so awesome and have such awesome info for me. Now I am posting a new question for our return trip to get from Rome back to Milan. Thank you all sooo much.