Milan has one of the largest airports in Italy (MXP), and I have found that flights – especially with points and miles – are cheaper in and out of Milan than they are from Rome (FCO). On our most recent trip to Italy, we flew in and out of Milan and took advantage of seeing the sites after arrival and before departure.
Arriving at Milan Malpensa (MXP) around 10am, we easily followed the signs to the train station and purchased a ticket to Milano Centrale using our phone tap to pay. The train ride took about an hour and had plenty of seating and storage for our suitcases.
We had reservations for two rooms at the Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale which was a 5 minute walk from the train station. One of our rooms was ready when we arrived around 12pm. The second one was ready an hour later.
After dropping our bags at the hotel, we left my mom to take a quick nap and set out to find some lunch. We happened upon Ristorante Il Tavolino https://www.opentable.com/r/il-tavolino-milan just outside of the hotel. They had great pizza and pasta and it was a perfect first meal in Italy! We shared a pasta carbonara and a margherita pizza. The pizza was cooked to perfection and the pasta was also very good. (News flash, we ended up eating here 3 times during our short stays in Milan).
I made reservations for the Last Supper museum many weeks ahead of time directly through their website. https://cenacolovinciano.vivaticket.it/en/event/cenacolo-vinciano/151991?qubsq=47cf751d-d3a1-4249-9cb3-74b9621a3639&qubsp=05392199-9f96-4002-897f-5a9ec89721fb&qubsts=1714743008&qubsc=bestunion&qubse=vivaticketoperator&qubsrt=Safetynet&qubsh=620a99702144e9478a394e01af22c4e8
This is the best way to get affordable tickets. You can find some on Viator, but they come with a huge price markup. The website typically announces when they will drop the next block about 3 months of tickets. It’s important to be tracking the drop date, and also looking periodically for the tickets to drop. I happened to be looking at the website on an overnight shift and the tickets for our dates had opened up without any previous announcement. They sell out quickly, especially for very popular travel dates.
The Last Supper Museum was about a 20 minute Uber ride from our hotel. The tour lasts a little over an hour, and is highly regulated. There were A LOT of people walking up to our tour guide trying to join the tour last minute. As a rule following goodie-two-shoes, I was shocked people thought this would work.
As a guided tour group you are allowed 15 minutes with the painting. Light, air, temperature, humidity, and CO2 are regulated to preserve the masterpiece. It was amazing to experience the painting in person knowing it is so old and such great lengths have been taken to preserve it. The tour includes walking through an area of the attached monastery and the attached church.
The Last Supper painting was our only actual planned event in Milan. After we finished the tour, we walked around the streets of Milan to head towards the Duomo. We stopped at the Sforzesco Castle which was a great place for the kids to run around in the courtyard. They enjoyed watching the cats and chasing pigeons!
From the castle we walked to the Duomo di Milano and through the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel II which is adjacent to the Duomo.
The goal of finding gelato was how I kept the kids motivated to keep walking. Somehow we managed to not see any gelato for the longest stretch of time of our trip. Looking back, there were a few gelato stores in the Galleria, but we didn’t notice them when we walked through. We finally found a gelato shop and it was a perfect mid afternoon snack and jet-lag remedy. I don’t remember where we got the gelato because at this time my phone battery had died and I had forgotten my backup battery. #wannabeinfluencerfail
We took an Uber back to the hotel and had dinner at Il Tavolino again. This time we had a reservation. Our waiter was fantastic and treated the girls like royalty. They were sad they couldn’t drink wine like the adults so he gave them “kid’s wine” aka water in a wine glass. I had the quattro formaggi pizza which was delicious and my mom had the fish special which was also very good.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and quickly went to bed. The beds were very comfortable at the Hyatt Centric and we all slept great.
The next morning we woke up around 7am to pack up and get to the train station for our 9:45am train to Venice.
Fast forward about 10 days, we are back in Milan.
We arrived at 12pm from Turin via train at the Milano Centrale station. We took the Frecciarossa and splurged for business class tickets for only a few Euro more per person. The tickets were only about $50 for four of us because the two kids tickets were free with the purchase of adult tickets.
We stayed at the Hyatt Centric Milan Central again. They had one room available for us when we arrived which was perfect for us to drop our things and then head to lunch around the corner at our favorite Milan restaurant – Il Tavolino. I had been searching for truffle pasta the entire trip, and on our last day, I finally found it. The pasta did not disappoint and was the perfect final lunch in Italy! If you haven’t had truffle pasta, be sure to order it if you see it on a menu when you are in northern Italy.
After a nice quiet time in the hotel, we headed out around 3:30pm for a rooftop terrace tour of the Duomo di Milano. I booked the tickets that morning directly on the Duomo website. If you are going during a busier time (summer), then you should book tickets further in advance. I booked four skip the line elevator tickets. The additional $5 for skipping the line was well worth it. As a general rule, I’m usually willing to pay more to not wait in line. It makes me happier and it is better with the kids to not have to wait in long lines. https://ticket.duomomilano.it/en/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwltKxBhDMARIsAG8KnqXDEJ0TGUAJevsWMc925iRmC0HSq1zI2leJWSan6iTXRPIX3k3xYSoaAjwREALw_wcB
The terraces were absolutely breathtaking and are a must see when you visit Milan. The skip the line elevator tickets come with access to the Duomo, the terraces, the archaeological area, and the museum.
We took about an hour for the terrace tour including a long break on the main roof to relax, knowing we had time to kill before our 7pm dinner reservation. Unfortunately, by the time we went down into the Duomo, it was mostly closed off in anticipation of closing in an hour’s time. We did get to see one side of the inside of the church, but we would have liked to see more of it. The tickets give you access for 3 days, but we were leaving early the next morning and didn’t have time to return for more touring.
We made our way back into the Galleria Vittoria Emmanuel II in search of gelato after our terrace tour. We ordered from Savini just off the central part of the mall. The gelato was not my favorite and the staff was quite rude. But it hit the spot to tide us over until dinner.
We ate our gelato in the piazza and then the girls did approximately 1000 handstands and cartwheels while burning off some energy and waiting for dinner.
For our final meal in Italy, I booked dinner reservations at Maio which overlooks the Duomo.
https://www.opentable.com/r/maio-restaurant-milan?originId=d254dd8a-3eb0-4fb6-8c9b-5cb55fed7486&corrid=d254dd8a-3eb0-4fb6-8c9b-5cb55fed7486&avt=eyJ2IjoyLCJtIjoxLCJwIjowLCJzIjowLCJuIjowfQ
It was a gorgeous way to end the night. They welcomed us to the restaurant with a glass of prosecco, and I ordered a delicious cocktail. They were accommodating to the kids, serving them spaghetti with pomodoro sauce, but there was no separate kids menu. Ultimately the girls felt very fancy eating on such a beautiful terrace with a gorgeous view of the Duomo. My mom and I shared the Veal Milanese which was delicious and the cheese plate which was also very good.
My girls spotted a woman at the restaurant with an adorable long haired dachshund and went over to say hello. They ended up telling this incredibly sweet woman about their entire trip and talked to her for at least 10-15 minutes. The only thing that got them back to the table was the promise of dessert!
After dinner we made our way back to the hotel to go to sleep and get up VERY early for our trip to the airport and our long trip back home.
