Getting There By Rail
The main station in Milan is the Stazione Centrale, Piazza Duca d’Aosta (tel: (848) 888 088 or (1478) 88088 – from Italy only), which has high-speed links to other major cities in Italy including Bologna, Venice, Genoa, Turin, Florence and Rome. The vast neo-Babylonian façade dates from the 1930s, dwarfing the ticket offices below from where escalators rise to the platforms and shops. Facilities include a tourist information office (tel: 02 7252 4360), post office, bank and self-service restaurant. Full business facilities are available from Eurostar Club (tel: 02 6698 1013; fax: 02 6707 7355), which offers four conference rooms (16 to 200 people), workstations, fax, copiers and translation services. Membership for six months costs ¬50.00. Car hire companies Hertz and Maggiore have offices by the Air Terminal (eastern flank of the station), where the buses for Linate and Malpensa depart.
Milan has 10 other stations mostly feeding commuter routes. Porta Garibaldi has useful services to Varese, Bergamo and Cremona. Trains from Cadorna station (downtown Milan), run by Ferrovie Nord Milano – FNM (tel: 02 20222; website: www.ferrovienord.it ), include the Malpensa Express and regional services to Como and north Italy. The Italian state railway, Ferrovie dello Stato (tel: 02 1478 88088, local information; website: www.fs-on-line.com ), runs the rest. Trains are reliable and fairly priced, although hefty supplements can be added depending on the type of train (Diretto, Inter-Regionale, InterCity or Eurostar). By law, all train tickets must be validated by stamping them in the yellow machines on the platform before boarding; failure to do so can result in a large fine.
Rail services: The direct Rome-Milan service between Italy’s most important business centres is fast and reliable. Services include the InterCity, with services to destinations such as Rome (journey time – 5 hours 40 minutes), and the luxurious Treno Eurostar, which also links Milan to Rome (journey time – 4 hours and 30 minutes) via Bologna and Florence – each service requires supplements. For ports, there are regular trains to Venice (journey time – 2 hours 45 minutes) and Genoa (journey time – 1 hour 30 minutes). The EuroCity train service links Milan to more than 40 other European destinations, including Paris, Basel and Brussels.
Transport to the city: The Stazione Centrale is a 30-minute walk from the city’s key attractions. Visitors should take a taxi, the metro (yellow line 3) or ATM bus 60. Cadorna station (for those arriving on the Malpensa Express) is on metro line 1 (red). The metro station at Stazione Centrale, on lines 2 (green) and 3 (yellow), is known as Centrale FS.
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