Varenna to Milan Malpensa Airport train for 12:45 pm flight

You can buy all Trenitalia tickets at any Trenitalia point of sale , including the travel agency inside Varenna station. Milano Centrale is no exception.
All in all, Just wait for late May and go to trenitalia.com/en.html . Get a ticket from Venice to Varenna together with a through ticket from Varenna-Esino to Malpensa Aeroporto. Why wait until you are in Italy and why waste time with employees/ticket machines at Milano Centrale?

All Regional trains tickets purchased on-line are pre-validated: it's a flaw, not a benefit, but I doubt you'll need the flexibility of open tickets bought at the station.

Since you are travelling in Late June, note that in 2022 the summer timetable change will happen on June 11.

Thank you Dario! That helps a lot.

Just in case someone got confused about this particular post/reply, it was in response to the following now deleted post:

Where does the flight from Milan go?

If it is a non -Schengen destination you need to factor in time to go through passport control etc.

"Worst case" is a random strike the morning you leave, not just having to get a later train.

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Milan flight goes to Frankfurt. Then connecting trans Atlantic flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco. Since it is on the same ticket, I assume time required at the airport should be similar to a non -Schengen country (like USA). Hence I should reach around 3 hours before. To buy us more margin, we can probably start an hour earlier.

About strikes, on the website https://www.italiarail.com/train-strikes-italy, I read the following:

These strikes are scheduled in advance, however, and the dates and times are announced and posted. This means you can find out about them, in some cases, before you even leave home.

Normally, in non pandemic times, all I need to fly from MXP to any Schengen destination is to check in no more than 75-90 min before departure. Three hours is way more than conservative.
If the pandemic still lingers in 2022 then I don’t know if you will need more.

all I need to fly from MXP to any Schengen destination is to check in no more than 75-90 min before departure.

Since it will be a through check-in to San Francisco - it will be same as traveling to a non Schengen destination.

Three hours is way more than conservative.

Yes - you are right. I think 3 hours should be enough even for non Schengen countries - especially if the pandemic has fairly subsided by the next June. I can adjust to higher time based on whether the pandemic is still big or conditions at that time.

ItaliaRail Is a private ticket agency, the official site should point out that airport trains are guaranteed to run even during a strike.

Since you are taking trains before 9 AM, odds are that the Varenna-Milan train is a guaranteed one, too.

Check if you can transfer to the airport train at Milano Cadorna station instead of Milano Centrale.

Well, its been 4 years since I posted the referenced thread, so timing and prices have changed slightly. 7:35 is the departure time from Varenna currently with a 9:46 arrival at Malpensa Terminal 1, and the prices is now 19.80 EUR per adult.

Since it is essentially a domestic flight connecting to an intercontinental flight, 2 hours is probably sufficient arrival time, so you could take the 8:35 train, but nothing wrong with having an extra time cushion in case of a hiccup. In case of a strike, there is a direct bus service that leaves very frequently from outside Milano Centrale. Had to use it a few years ago when there was a strike that day.

I see no reason to change to Cadorna station via Metro. The train from Varenna arrives at Milano Centrale and trains to Malpensa go from there every 30 minutes. The trains from Cadorna are a little quicker because they make fewer stops, but not enough difference to make the cumbersome transfer between stations worth while.

I see no reason to change to Cadorna station via Metro

Neither do I. In fact I did not suggest to take the metro (subway) from Centrale to Cadorna, I told Pho'otgraphy Buff to check if there are direct trains from Varenn-Esino to Cadorna that bypass Centrale.

Dario, is there now a manned ticket office in the Varenna station? Or are you referring to the private travel agency around the corner and down the street? Or a machine inside the station? We were there in 2014 so it has been a long time, but there wasn't a ticket office or a working machine when we were there.

The point to the OP, is buy them whenever and wherever its convenient. You don't have to wait until the day of travel.

check if there are direct trains from Varenna-Esino to Cadorna that bypass Centrale.

I don't believe that that is possible. There are two lines which stop at Varenna-Esino, the one we usually think of which is Tirano-Milano Centrale and the other is a franchised all-stops which joins Sondrio and Lecco.

According to the TreNord website route planner there aren't any via Cadorna. Too bad - a good idea.

down the street

I am referring to this Travel Agency, I viaggi del Divano. I doubt there will ever be a ticket machine inside that station, there is also a Tobacconist that sells Regional trains tickets, now. As I wrote, I'd just get all the tickets at once on trenitalia.com, but there are other options in Varenna.

We were just in Varenna and bought tickets from a person midday. I am not sure how early they open so would want to either buy them online or in person the day before.

Thank you Dario, Sam, Nigel, BethFL and stan for very useful info! It really helps. The biggest point that it helps right now (as opposed to next June) is the big picture itinerary planning / hotel booking - it seems safe enough to go to Milan airport in the morning rather than moving to Milan the night before to be closer to the airport. Going to Milan, the day before would only give us half a day there - but would add the inconvenience of moving the bags to a hotel near Milano Centrale or near the airport.

Just make sure your accommodations in Varenna are refundable. We were booked on a similar timed flight in 2020 and it changed to 10 am, making it impossible to spend last night in Varenna. Now this was the Covid year and our flight was eventually totally cancelled but flights still aren't normal.

As far as I checked, all the accommodations in Varenna that have a free cancellation, allow cancellation only till 7 days in advance. I booked one of these (free cancellation 7 days before). I do not see any way to handle your kind of situation where the airline moves a 12:45 pm flight to 10 am say a couple of days before the flight. If that happens we would just have to stay the first 2 nights in Varenna for the cost of 3 nights and book a hotel near Milan airport for the third night if available. I would hope this kind of changes would be done at least 10 days in advance by the airline - but yes if somethings like that were to happen it may be hard to deal with.

I would be astonished if the changes were made that late.

Keep an eye on your ticket record, especially as you get to a couple of months out. They may be sneaky and not tell you. Don't buy your plane tickets from a third party - much easier to deal with any changes directly.

Just scan around on here to see how many people have had their flights changed or cancelled. Be patient.

I just did the exact journey you're talking about last month. My final night in Italy was in Varenna and I flew out of Malpensa. I bought all of my train tickets on the Trenitalia app on my phone. It was super easy and for over two months of train travel, I never once had a problem buying or using the tickets. All tickets you buy on the app are already validated, so you don't have to worry about that. All the trains from Varenna go to Milano Centrale. And from there you change to the Malpensa Express as others have mentioned. I don't remember exactly how long it took me to get from the train station at Malpensa to my gate, but it was pretty quick. It helped that there's a separate security for flights to the US and Israel. That cuts down on the wait time. Immigration was super easy and fast.

Keep an eye on your ticket record, especially as you get to a couple of months out. They may be sneaky and not tell you. Don't buy your plane tickets from a third party - much easier to deal with any changes directly.

Thanks for the tips Nigel.

I just did the exact journey you're talking about last month. My final night in Italy was in Varenna and I flew out of Malpensa.

Great to know your experience Bill.

I bought all of my train tickets on the Trenitalia app on my phone. It was super easy and for over two months of train travel, I never once had a problem buying or using the tickets. All tickets you buy on the app are already validated, so you don't have to worry about that.

I take it that these are regional kind of trains and hence do not need a physical ticket which needs to be inserted inside a turnstile as in the case of subway/metro. So you just bought these tickets via the Trenitalia app just before traveling on the regional / inter-city trains for all your journeys in Italy? Of course, you may want to purchase via the app at least a little before reaching the station, in case you do not get the coverage or the WiFi at the station is not very good.

No tickets purchased online need to be time-stamped before use, the type of train doesn't matter.

By the way, you don't insert tickets in metro-style turnstiles, validation machines can be found around the Stations and close to each track.

Italians do what you have just described, they purchase Regional tickets while going to the station. But they have a local SIM with free data included. As you rightly pointed out, You should rely on public WiFi.

Most important: you have no reason to get the Varenna-Milan-MXO tickets at the last minute, you won't need much flexibility on that day.
Get the tickets online before your journey, save the pdf in your phone, print it out to have a back-up and forget about it up to the departure day.

Thanks Dario.

But they have a local SIM with free data included.

In my past Europe travels (for work or pleasure), I used to buy a local SIM card with a lot of high speed data so I can use Google Maps, etc. But these days I just buy T-Mobile's International Pass which is relatively cheap and includes unlimited calling, either 5GB or 15GB of high speed data and works in 210 countries. I can set it to activate on a particular date when I land outside the US (including any plane layover airports). In general it provides a seamless connectivity for me as I can keep using my US number.

Most important: you have no reason to get the Varenna-Milan-MXO tickets at the last minute, you won't need much flexibility on that day.

You are right - I do not plan to buy those tickets last minute. I was just curious about this option for some of the other journeys within Italy which may need some flexibility - like a day trip.

If so, purchasing on line right before the departure is absolutely normal all over Italy and you'll be able to do the same.

Note that the "electronic counters" (site, app and ticket machines) close 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time of a train, just like their analog counterparts.

Thanks - good to know.

There are couple of changes to my itinerary - my Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt is now earlier at 10:40 am (instead of 12:45 pm) and is a different flight from the Milan Linate Airport instead of Malpensa. Since the Linate airport looks a smaller airport, I assume around 1.5-2 hours before the flight departure should be enough. Working backwards I need to reach by 8:45-9 am at least.

Since there are 4 of us, I think the easiest option may be to book an airport shuttle in advance and seem to cost around 145 euros and the trip time seems to be around 110 minutes. I see several online options, but if there is someone who has done this journey, do you have any recommendations for a shuttle service?

If I cannot find a shuttle option, the other option seems to be take a train to Milano Centrale Station and then take a taxi to the Linate airport from there. Any reason to recommend train + taxi option over a private shuttle other than price?

From rome2rio website, I see a 7:35 am train which reaches Milano Centrale at 8:40 am - and the taxi time is shown as 9 minutes. Probably cutting it too tight though - the train before maybe a better choice. It departs an hour earlier at 6:38 am and takes 25 minutes longer and reaches at 8:07 am.

I see a 7:35 am train which reaches Milano Centrale at 8:40 am - and the taxi time is shown as 9 minutes.

google maps shows the travel time from Milan Central to LIN in the 8-9 AM time frame to be 16-36 minutes by car and 45 minutes by bus. Morning traffic could be a real issue.

If I had to do it , I would sleep in Milan the night before.

You have a situation where everything has to run like the proverbial Swiss watch, or things get really ugly really fast.

Good luck

Thanks for your reply.

google maps shows the travel time from Milan Central to LIN in the 8-9
AM time frame to be 16-36 minutes by car and 45 minutes by bus.
Morning traffic could be a real issue.

Yeah - good point. Not even the earlier trains? 6:22 am train reaching Milan Central at 7:40 am or 6:38 train reaching Milan Central at 8:07 am? Or just use a private shuttle? By the way, it will be a Sunday morning.

If I had to do it , I would sleep in Milan the night before.

May end up doing that - but it throws all the itinerary a bit off.

Traffic from Centrale to Linate is not an issue in the morning, even on weekdays, because you are going against the commute traffic and taxis can utilize some taxi lanes downtown.
Having said that I prefer to sleep closer to the airport when I catch morning flights because I don’t like to wake up early and also you never know what might happen. An accident, a flat tire, a train delay, are all things that might ruin the day.

google shows the travel time on a Sunday as 14-24 minutes; not quite as bad as the weekday time estimates in my earlier post. A bit better but still indicative of a 'crap shoot'.

Trenitalia shows the last train from Varenna to Milan is 935 PM, so you could still have a full day at the Lake and then head to Milan to go to bed.

Thanks Roberto and joe32F. Makes sense - I will arrive in Milan at least the night before. Hence I think I will redo my itinerary to drop one destination. Will create a separate thread for optimizing that one as I need advice on one of those options.

I wish the airline had not changed my afternoon 2:45 pm flight from Milan forcing the earlier flight - but it is what it is.

Could you ask the airline to move it the other way - so that you have one more day ?

The next day will be too many days - it is already a 3 week vacation and we need that extra day rest on Monday July 4th holiday to recover from vacation before starting work. One less destination in a 3 week trip will not hurt.

Yes, that makes sense. Sorry you will have to cut something out. But I understand about needing recovery time !!

Actually I just booked an early morning shuttle from Varenna to the Linate airport. A little costly but it does not need any changes to the itinerary. It seems it takes 70 minutes to the airport - should not be hard to reach 2 hours before the flight (i.e. 8:40 am for the 10:40 am flight) as long as we leave before 7 am.