Milano Centrale will see a lot more traffic this year since the MILAN EXPO2015 just opened May 1st and will run until November 1, 2015. This beautiful structure is an architectural monument, modeled after Union Station in Washington, DC.
If you measure by size and traffic volume, Milan’s main train station is the second-largest station in Italy. Over 120 million people use this station every year with 600 trains departing or arriving each day.
So in addition to being one of the busiest, Milano Centrale is definitely one of the most beautiful train stations in Europe.
I have traveled through this station on numerous occasions and have always found it to be efficient and a pleasant experience. Have you traveled through Milano Centrale? What was your experience? I’d love to hear your feedback. Please leave a comment. Grazie.
treks4life
There is definitely a lot of security measures at the station. You cannot enter the area where the “binari” (tracks) are without a valid ticket. Beautiful station though!
megtraveling
I’m going to be in Milan in a couple of weeks and I’m going to find out if I can take a train here from Malpensa airport. Great post and pictures Margie!
Diana
Hi Margie! Great photos….my husband works across the street from this station, so we are there often. It is a beautiful station, loved all your info. It is a mess right now…all torn up (the platforms near the Malpensa Express tracks) – or at least it was about a week ago. I must admit that Milano failed miserably at preparing for EXPO. Many beautiful parts of the city are still completely torn up. Corso Italia (about a 10 min. walk from the Duomo) is a complete disaster! What a pity. Anyway….again…loved all your fun facts. Have a good weekend.
imarancher
I love architecture. I think I love the bones of a building more than a painting. I think that structural thing is also why I love statues. Perhaps it is my plebian nature. I love things that are functional as well as beautiful. A statue not functional? Of course it is, you can push it over on a burglar! LOL
Jack Erickson
Thanks for the memory, Margie.
A three hour layover in August ’11 at Centrale changed my life.
While taking photos of the neo-fascist art, marble staircases, murals of medieval Italy, and
bas reliefs of zodiac signs in Centrale, a lightbulb went off. No, It was more like lightening bolt.
I was standing alone in busy foot traffic snapping photos, my wife, luggage, passport on the train. I imagined someone grabbing me and whisking me off.
That began a two year journey of returning to Milano to research and write “Thirteen Days in Milan.”
But instead of me being whisked off, my protagonist is an American woman, single mother, whose 10-year old daughter is on the train. The woman takes photos of terrorists coming into Centrale to commit a political assassination; she is whisked away and becomes a hostage with a ransom on her head.
“Thirteen Days in Milan” was published in paperback last year and recently became available at Amazon and LaFeltrinelli in Italian, “Tredici giorni a Milano.” I’ll be back in Milano this summer to research the sequel due out this fall.
Thanks for letting me share my Centrale story, Margie.
Francis
Its certainly one of the most impressive railway stations I have ever seen.