venice to mxp

sandy,

In the same situation, my preference would be to take the train from Venice to Milan as soon as you disembark. I'm assuming you'll be disembarking right in Venice, so the closest rail station will be Venezia Santa Lucia.

The trip from Venice to Milan is fairly short, about 2H:35M via EuroStar Italia (reservations compulsory but not hard to get). There are frequent trains on that route every day so you shouldn't have any trouble getting a ticket unless it's a major holiday.

When you arrive in Milan, you can either stay near Milano Centrale, or in the area around via Dante (which is within walking distance to the Duomo, Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele and Sforza Castle). I probably shouldn't admit this, but the McDonald's in the Galleria Vittoria Emmanuele has great coffee, and it's a full sized portion!

If you decide on the via Dante area, that's close to Cadorna Station where you can board the Malpensa Express for the short trip to the airport (as it's a train, no worries about traffic). I recently stayed in that area at Hotel London (which I believe is listed in the Guidebook). If you're travelling light, you can walk from via Dante to Cadorna station in about 10-15 minutes. If you're NOT travelling light, take a Taxi from your Hotel as it's only a short ride. I went to the station the day before I'd be travelling to have a quick look and buy my ticket for the Malpensa Express (there's a separate ticket office for that in one corner of the station).

If you decide on the area around Milano Centrale, you can use the Malpensa Shuttle (pay the Driver). Have a look at THIS for more details on the Shuttle.

Happy travels!

I will add that if your flight is very early (as it seems many connecting to the US are) then the shuttle from the Main train Station is a better option since they run much longer hours than the Malpensa Express train.