Alitalia Flights from Milan, Italy (MXP) to Miami (MIA)
As part of booking roundtrip flights which depart from US airports,
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on Alitalia, which operates a daily non-stop flight from Milan, Italy (MXP) to Miami (MIA) regularly scheduled to depart at 10:10am and arrive at 3:00pm. Usually a Boeing 777-200 is flown for this route. The average travel time from Milan, Italy to Miami, FL is 10 hours and 50 minutes.
During your Miami vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Miami Seaquarium
If you've been to Orlando's SeaWorld, you may be disappointed with Miami's version, which is considerably smaller and not as well maintained. It's hardly a sprawling seaquarium, but you will want to arrive early to enjoy the effects of its mild splash. You'll need at least 3 hours to tour the 35-acre oceanarium and see all four daily shows starring a number of showy ocean mammals. You can cut your visit to 2 hours if you limit your shows to the better, albeit corny, Flipper Show and Killer Whale Show. The highly regarded Water and Dolphin Exploration Program (WADE) allows visitors to touch and swim with dolphins in the Flipper Lagoon. The program costs $140 per person participating, $32 per observer, and is offered twice daily, at noon and 3:30pm, 7 days a week. Children must be at least 52 inches tall to participate. Reservations are necessary for this program. Call tel. 305/365-2501 in advance for reservations.
Miami Design Preservation League
On Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings, the Design Preservation League sponsors walking tours that offer a fascinating inside look at the city's historic Art Deco District. Tour-goers meet for a 1 1/2-hour walk through some of America's most exuberantly "architectured" buildings. The league led the fight to designate this area a National Historic District and is proud to share the splendid locale with visitors.
The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
Sometimes referred to as the "Hearst Castle of the East," this magnificent villa is more Gatsby-esque than anything else you'll find in Miami. It was built in 1916 as a winter retreat for James Deering, co-founder and former vice president of International Harvester. The industrialist was fascinated by 16th-century art and architecture and his ornate mansion, which took 1,000 artisans 5 years to build, became a celebration of that period. If you love antiques, this place is a dream come true, packed with European relics and works of art from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Most of the original furnishings, including dishes and paintings, are still intact. You will see very early versions of a telephone switchboard, central vacuum cleaning system, elevators, and fire sprinklers. A free guided tour of the 34 furnished rooms on the first floor takes about 45 minutes. The second floor, which consists mostly of bedrooms, is open to tour on your own. The spectacularly opulent villa wraps itself around a central courtyard. Outside, lush formal gardens, accented with statuary, balustrades, and decorative urns, front an enormous swath of Biscayne Bay. Definitely take the tour of the rooms, but immediately thereafter, you will want to wander and get lost in the resplendent gardens.
Pelican Hotel
Owned by the same creative folks behind the Diesel Jeans company, the Pelican (whose brazen, albeit appropriate, motto is "A myth in its own limelight") is South Beach's only self-professed "toy-hotel," in which each of its 30 rooms and suites is decorated as outrageously as some of the area's more colorful drag queens. Each room has been designed daringly and rather wittily by Swedish interior decorator Magnus Ehrland, whose countless trips to antiques markets, combined with his wild imagination, have turned room no. 309, for instance, into the "Psychedelic(ate) Girl," room no. 201 into the "Executive Fifties" suite, and room no. 313 into the "Jesus Christ Megastar" room. But the most popular room is the tough-to-score room no. 215, or the "Best Whorehouse," which is said to have made even former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss red with envy. As South Beach is known for poseurs of all types, this hotel fits right in.
Fisher Island Club
Located on an exclusive island just off Miami Beach, this hotel is a luxurious cross between Fantasy Island, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and Survivor. But you will not be roughing it on this island, which serves as a retreat for those with enough money to afford it, including the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Oprah Winfrey (who sold her multimillion-dollar condo here in favor of a multi-, multimillion manse in Santa Barbara).To get to the resort, visitors and residents take a private ferry, which shuttles guests to and from the mainland every 15 to 20 minutes. It can be somewhat of a hassle -- especially if you need to make a quick return to the island -- but it does run on a very regular schedule. Be forewarned that the ferry lets residents on first, so if there's no room after all the Rolls Royces and Ferraris roll on, you're outta luck and will have to wait for the next one. Don't worry if you are carless -- on this exclusive island, golf carts will get you anywhere you need to go.As for location, you're only minutes from the airport, South Beach, Coral Gables, and Coconut Grove (not counting ferry time). Still, considering the pampering you'll receive in this former Vanderbilt mansion turned resort extraordinaire, you probably won't want to leave the seclusion of the island for the frenetic city. Rooms vary in size and shape, and cottages come with hot tubs. A world-class spa and club offer all the amenities you could imagine. And you definitely won't go hungry: The elegant Vanderbilt Club offers Continental cuisine; the Beach Club and Golfer's Grill serve basic but expensive sandwiches and salads; an Italian cafe prepares good pizza and pastas; and a gourmet general store sells everything else. On top of it all, enjoy mixing and mingling with some of the most offbeat millionaires in the world -- you know, the kind who tug their Gucci-clad pooches around in their Rolls Royce golf carts.
Nassau Suite Hotel
Stylish and reasonably priced, this 1937 hotel feels more like a modern apartment building with its 22 suites (studios or one-bedrooms), featuring wood floors, rattan furniture, and fully equipped open kitchens. Beds are all king-size and rather plush, but the bed isn't the room's only place to rest: Each room also has a sitting area that's quite comfortable. Registered as a National Historic Landmark, the Nassau Suite Hotel may exist in an old building, but both rooms and lobby are fully modernized. The Nassau Suite caters to a young, hip crowd of both gay and straight guests. Continental breakfast is available for $5 per person.
