Hotel nearish to MXP

[jan]

I'm working on our trip for the Fall. We'll have a car in Western Liguria ( the Ponente) and will be leaving from MXP for a week in Prague on an Easy Jet flight. I don't want to just drive up there and stay right near the airport. I'd like to find a place where we can check in and walk around a town, have a nice meal, but within 30-40 minutes of the airport for the next day. I would appreciate your suggestions.

 

[Ian Sutton]

We like the agriturismo Il Cavenago in Ghemme. Distance-wise I reckon c. 30 mins, but worth checking. It's a decent location for the Autostrada. https://www.agriturismo.it/en/farmhouse/piedmont/novara/IlCavenago-5930219/index.html

The appeal jumps up a lot if it's an evening where they're serving food (typically Friday and Saturday evenings, Sunday lunch, but other times if there's a local booking to justify it). The food is a set mini-banquet, and it's excellent, especially the risotto. Good local wine list as well, very moderately marked up. Rooms are heavy oaked affairs, whilst the bathrooms are modern & well-fitted. Nice grounds including a grassed enclosed courtyard that attracts bats at dusk (we love watching them). Some decent walks to/from the estate, plus Ghemme itself a 10-15 minute walk away (the town nothing special, but the people seem very charming, and the bypass has removed all the traffic).

Breakfast ok, but unlike the evening meals, it doesn't showcase the local food as well.

If they aren't serving food, there are some decent unfussy places to eat in Ghemme with Il gufo nero possibly the pick (I enjoyed the braised donkey there). For something slightly grander, Impero in nearby Sizzano was enjoyable, the building somewhat imposing, but the service and welcome warm, with the food solid (in a good way). There's even a new sushi place opened in Ghemme since we last visited.

 

[Ian Sutton]

Meanwhile if wanting a small city, which is indeed lovely to walk around, Novara is about a 30 min drive away from Malpensa. I don't know the hotels there.

 

[Tery]

I'd recommend Osteria della Piste, in Casorate Sempione. It's only about 10 minutes north of MXP and the hotel has a great restaurant. We stayed in the hotel in 2015, but have eaten at their restauarant a number of other times when we've stayed in or near Casorate Sempione. We had stayed several times in a wonderful AirBnb apartment in Casorate S. (within walking distance of Osteria della Piste), but the family who owns it is no longer renting it out . Casorate is a nice small little town and we loved staying there but, unfortunately, there are no available apartments there now when we arrive at MXP at the end of September. So, we're going to stay again for the first week at our favorite place in Massino Visconti, on the Piemonte side of Lago Maggiore.

 

[jan]

Thanks, Tery and Ian.