If you're taking the train from Milano Centrale to Venezia, which is over 2 hours, here's one…read morepiece of advice: arrive early! Milano Centrale is a beautiful station, but it's also incredibly busy. There are people everywhere, trains constantly arriving and departing, and the departure boards can be overwhelming if it's your first time navigating an Italian train station. I was trying to catch a train that was leaving soon, and reading the departure board while figuring out which platform I needed was a little stressful. I asked a few people for help, but they either couldn't or didn't want to assist me. Thankfully, I eventually found a very kind station employee who pointed me in the right direction, and I literally made my train by the skin of my teeth! If you're visiting from the United States, don't assume it's as simple as walking in a few minutes before departure. Give yourself at least 30 minutes and honestly 45 minutes if it's your first time. That extra time will let you: Find your train on the departure board. Confirm your platform (track). Navigate the station without rushing. Avoid the stress of missing your train. Arrive even earlier to shop! Once I got on board, everything was smooth, but those first few minutes in the station definitely had my heart racing! **My tip:** Take a deep breath, arrive early, and don't wait until the last minute. It'll make your train experience much more enjoyable.

I can't really review a lot about this station; we trained in from Milan on our way to Verona then…read morecame back this way through on our way back to Malpensa on our way home. We did notice that there are a good number of restaurants, shops and cafes for travelers, and we did end up stopping for a focaccia sandwich each before our next train pulled in. On our first stop in, the city experienced a hail storm, which was loud against the metal roof of the station. It came out of nowhere, and went as quickly as it came. It was loud and a little startling, but pretty dang cool. It's easy to navigate and find your necessary platforms, and it's clean and feels safe. The staff was friendly and seemed attentive to the people walking around.

Stazione Bergamo is a small station located in the lower town. The taxis and buses are directly…read moreoutside. The Bergamo tourist information office is also out front. (There is a VisitBergamo app and you can send a text that allows you WiFi access while visiting Bergamo.) Don't forget when you depart the train station to validate your ticket in the yellow box located in the terminal. I think the train tickets on Trenitalia are a very reasonable way to travel within Italy. I know some trains get delayed, but they make announcements at the stations. My experience, fortunately, has been on-time and very efficient service.

Unfortunately the little Italian I took back in the day isn't up to par. Meaning I practically…read moreforgot all of it due to lack of use. Consequently when booking a hotel in Milan for the night before my flight back home, I had one requirement: the hotel staff must speak fluent English. Now it may seem silly that I was adamant about this requirement, but a lot of hotels claim to speak English and don't. I'm specifically thinking of my time in Chile here, but I digress. I speak three languages and Italian isn't one of them, so I settled on the one most likely to be spoken and that is English. If you know me, then you know I have terrible anxiety. Add me traveling alone back home, and with the double whammy of a sprained ankle, and I wanted to make myself as comfortable as possible. Luckily for me, this is an American chain in Italy and it is near a lot of things (including a train station that I would have used except I wound up in a taxi thanks to my ankle). I had no issues with the staff whatsoever. They all spoke English, which helped loads, especially considering that I got stuck in the elevator. This is one of those that the card is electronic, and well, I guess the signal of my phone messed up the signal of the card for the elevator. At any rate, minus this instance, everything was great with Uber Eats delivering to the hotel and the staff ordering me a taxi the next day. Did I mention, too, that the room was spacious and that the toilet and shower were in the same room? Seriously you have no idea how much it annoys me when they're in separate rooms. All hail Best Western. It felt like having a little bit of home in Italy.

This is right across the central station in Milan so if you…read morewill be taking the train a lot this is your hotel. The lady that greeted us was very accommodating when we arrived even offered us some coffee and helped us with our luggage. So a very nice, first impression. The room was of a typical queen bed hotel but we have a window view of the magnificent church right next door. Rooms came with the usual mini fridge, kettle, coffee and tea. Bathroom was modern with a shower and bidet of course. Toiletries, towels and hair dryer provided. You can also cast your phone to watch your netflix on the tv. Wifi was good and of course housekeeping was great. Chain hotels are a safer bet than airbnbs nowadays anyway.

So thankful for the Malpensa Express and that the station is basically connected to the Sheraton at…read moreT1 Malpensa Airport. It makes for a super convenient and economic way to get from the airport or the Sheraton if you are staying there, to Milan! This review is if you're trying to get to Milan from T1 or the Sheraton. Make sure to purchase your ticket to get off at the Cadorna stop. Tickets are 13 euros each way. Make sure to have your ticket handy, as they have train staff come through to scan tickets. There have been times where they don't come by, but always make sure to have your tickets. You can purchase your tickets inside the terminal and then take the escaltor down to the track. It's super easy. Malpensa Express to Cardona takes about 45ish minutes. It is not non-stop, there are some stops along the way.

Malpensa Express is a convenient, public transport from Downtown Milan to Malpensa airport and vice…read moreversa. When living in the Centro Storico section of Milan we used this service often and boarded at the Cadorna train station. Have your ticket ready to scan for access to the platform and to show the train conductor. See the departures board at the station for track assignment. In our experience, Malpensa Express has a dedicated track at each station so if you use it often, you know where it will be. When purchasing tickets specify if you want to arrive at the Malpensa T1 or T2 station. One terminal is for flights within Schengen, the other is for destinations that require boarder crossing. Your flight confirmation should specify which terminal you are leaving from. Malpensa Express trains are 'direct'. When traveling from Cadorna to T1 the trip takes just over half an hour and costs one way thirteen euro. A direct train to T2 takes 3/4 of an hour for the same price. Other direct trains depart from Centrale station and Garibaldi station. All are the same price. Be sure you are using the Malpensa Express website to book these 'door to door' trains online. Each trip is under an hour in duration and conveniently arrive right below the airport. The trains offer overhead luggage racks for small bags, some storage is located behind/between seats and many cars have luggage racks by the door. All carriages are 1st class, the seats are comfortable and as there are no stops, there is no worries about missing your stop. Malpensa is the 'end of the line' or when leaving from the airport, your station of choice is the 'end of the line'. Several stations in Milan offer this direct Express service but not all of them. In these cases, you will need to book a separate train to reach your final destination or use the Metro. For a train, you may want to try the Trenitalia.com website for an English version of the Italian train service. Metro information is at milanpublictransport.com/metro-milan/ When you purchase your ticket from one of the many ticket machines at the station, be sure to 'punch' the ticket at one of the small green boxes on the platform to validate the ticket. If you purchase the ticket online bring a printout or have a screenshot ready for the conductor. You can purchase your ticket from the ticket agent at the airport station upon arrival. Follow the signs for Malpensa Express down to the lower level. A ticket counter is located at the top of the escalators and ticket machines are off to one side. The agents are not known for being chatty in English. All you need to know is how many biglietti you need ('bee-eht-tee') and what station you are trying to reach: Centrale, Garibaldi, etc. The ticket machines offer a number of language options - just touch the British flag icon for English.

Surprised to see so many bad reviews here. I used BikeMi both days I've been in Milan, including…read morefor 32 miles today, for a flat rate of 5 1/2 euros per day (plus a 1/2 euro penalty each day, which I'm not sure what for, but that's still only 6 euros). That's basically 19 US cents per mile for today's ride...almost as cheap as walking. Didn't really have any problems with the bikes, other than the gear shifter sometimes being delayed when shifting into a lower gear. When you approach the bike rack and unlock a bike with the app, it automatically picks a bike for you. If for some reason you don't want that bike - for instance, a couple it assigned me had old gear shifters so you couldn't read what gear it was in - you just put that bike back, wait for it to lock, and then follow the same process to unlock another bike. The bike I had today seemed to hold up great, and was lighter than the Citi Bikes we have in NY.

#85-2016: I know, a…read morebicycle lover like me should assign (hands down) a full 5-star review to such a great service as this but follow me in my train of thoughts and you will understand (and most of all agree with) my 2 stars final score. First off, http://www.atm.it/en/ViaggiaConNoi/Bici/Pages/BikeMi.aspx gives you an idea of what the service is and what it has to offer: the concept is GENIUS!! Need to get from point A to point B without feeling like you wanna hit someone due to crazy traffic? Go to a pick-up point (you can check how many bikes are available and which location is nearest to you with this link https://wap.bikemi.com/en/stations-map.aspx), grab your bike, ride it and arrive to your destination and drop your bike? NOPE.. unless you drop it off at an BIKEME point it will still count against your minutes of use!! So, unlike the car sharing concept you are STILL obliged to find a spot to drop off the bike and go on with your life. Did I mention you need to get a subscription to use this "fantastic" mean of transportation? It gives quite a few options but the subscription grants you privileges to use the bikes NOT a set amount of minutes you can ride per (let's say) a day exceeding 30 minutes. You pay for the amount of time you use the bike and you can't keep the bike overnight, you pay for the time but you can't exceed a set amount of hours per day usage, you pay to get a service and then you pay the usage. "But I can then pick up a bike anywhere I want in the city, ride it for X amount of time and drop it of anywhere I want without worrying it being stolen". And that is where you are wrong my friends. .. So, now you have subscribed to the service and you are convinced that you will find a bikeme station within, say, 1-2 blocks from where you live... YA right... UNLESS you live within the city center, there will be no chance in hell to find a station which is comfortably within walking distance from you. In order to do the right thing (which I already do with my own bike at the risk of having it stolen) I have to hop on a metro or bus and THEN get to (say) piazza Piemonte to grab a bike and do my rounds? The way I look at it is, should you need to run errands during your working hours (related to your job obviously) and you are in luck with stations being close to both point A and B, then this is the thing for you (feel free to consult ahead of time the location of the bikeme points https://wap.bikemi.com/en/stations-map.aspx) Otherwise, just run the risk of getting your bike stolen. PS: yes, I DID try to like this service, I was even gifted the subscription and I even tried it a total of 3 times... I really wanted to love it.. but like many other things, unless it is love at first sight (in this case at first ride), it isn't meant to be.