Milan

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Milan is a city with lots of hustle and bustle, a mix of the old with the new and where stunning fashion meets extraordinary architecture. The city is centered around the Milan Cathedral, and exquisite piece of history that took nearly 6 centuries to complete. We were only able to stay one night as we were flying from Milan Malpensa airport (MXP) back to the states the next day.

We had a direct flight from MXP to San Francisco (SFO). Milan airport has quite a few direct flights going to major US cities as it’s one of Italy’s bigger airports. Here is a list of direct flights from Milan to the states.

MXP ——> USA

1. Atlanta (ATL) 10hrs 29 min

2. Los Angeles (LAX) 12hrs 50 min

3. New York (JFK) 9hrs 17 min

4. Newark (EWR) 9hrs 30 min

5. Miami (MIA) 11hrs

6. San Francisco (SFO) 12hrs 35min

Airlines: Delta, United, American, AirItaly, Alitalia, Emirates

From the states you can fly directly into Milan from these cities:

USA ——> MXP

1. New York

2. los Angeles

3. Atlanta

4. Miami

5. San Francisco

We flew on AirItaly both ways and it was great! If you are able to fly to and from the east coast that is the best option both financially and for the length of flight.

We hired a car to take us from Lake Como to Milan around ($100) took about an hour and 20 minutes, highly recommend for such a short drive. He pulled right up to the front door of our hotel, in the heart of Milan. There are direct trains going from Como to Milan but this was very convenient for us.

Milan Train Station

We stayed at the Straf Hotel (on points!) a member of Marriott Design Hotels for one night. I Loved this hotel, it was modern, industrial and moody in the heart of all the history. We were less than a block from the Cathedral and surrounding square and Galleria, I highly recommend staying in an area you want to explore. In Italy, walking is the preferred method of transportation. The closer to the sites you stay the easier it is to plan out when you should visit and the times you should avoid.

Hotel Straf Entrance

We quickly unpacked and went out to explore (shop 😉 with what time we had left in the day. First stop was to obviously see the Milan Cathedral in real life.

Milan Cathedral

Starving and in dire need to continue to stare at the stunning duomo, we opted with Il Mercato a tiny little restaurant right in the Piazza del Duomo.

As always, amazing food no matter what you order and the hugo spritz hmmmm cant get enough.

Then onto shopping!!!! First stop was the Milan Galleria, Italy’s oldest active shopping center, that houses the worlds first Prada store!

Jan got her hands on some beautiful black cat eye Prada sunglasses.

After spending a good portion of our afternoon staring at incredible luxury designer pieces we needed a drink, lol. Found this AMAZING rooftop IL Bar Milano. With the most stunning view of the Milan Cathedral.

As you can imagine we were pretty wiped and needed to gather ourselves for our long flight back to the states in the AM. We called it a night with some face masks and wine in our hotel room.

The day of our departure Emma and I decided to wake up at 5:30am to get some shots at the Cathedral before the sun came up and the tourists came out. No matter where I am traveling one of my absolute favorite things to do is for at least one morning, get up with the sun. You see the area in such a different light (literally). These are typically the moments I feel the most thankful, the pinch me i’m really here moments. So try it out and see how you feel 😉

We had our hotel set up a car service to take us to the Milan airport, again highly recommend doing this if you can. Off to the airport! Until next year Italy! I love you!