Even if this will be your first and only opportunity to visit Milan it’s possible to get an overview of some of the major sites in one day. The Duomo, La Scala Opera House, the Castello Sforzesco, and a viewing of DaVinci’s Last Supper can be visited, at least briefly, before catching an evening train back to Stresa. If it's your first time I highly recommend booking a half-day tour that includes The Last Supper. And if you’ve already been to Milan several times, then you have the freedom to travel in at your leisure and take advantage of the culture, the fashion, the shopping, and the food of this trendy city in any way you like.

Here are some basic instructions for taking the train from Stresa to Milan. Purchase your roundtrip ticket at the Stresa train station. (You can read more about the station here.) Be sure whether you want to arrive at Garibaldi or Centrale, and then ask for a ticket, andata e ritorno, roundtrip. The price will vary depending on which train line it is, whether it is an express or regional, and time of day and day of the week. For regional tickets, remember to punch your ticket into one of the yellow boxes you’ll see hanging on the wall of the station near the tracks. This validates your ticket for this portion of the trip. Watch the clock and the monitors for the arrival of your train, and listen to the announcements, and then embark. Note: regional trains do not have assigned seating; all other trains do.

Once arrived in Milan, if you want to take the Metro, you’ll need to stop at a tabacchiera, the tobacconist, which is really the newspaper stand, and purchase tickets for the subway. Each ticket is good to use anywhere on the Metro system.

Taxis are lined up outside of all stations.

Now, one word of caution. On your return trip, Stresa will not be the destination shown on the monitors. The final destination will be shown. Trains returning to Stresa may say Geneve, Domodossola, or Bern, so you may feel more content if you ask at the information desk, just for peace of mind. You can cross-check the train number on the monitors and your ticket.

That’s all there is to it. Easy, economical, and fast, and you’re traveling like a real Italian.