On our way out of Milan in October 2024, after a fabulous trip to Cinque Terre, Lucca, Florence & Milan, we spent 90 minutes in the Sala Montale lounge in Milan Malpensa’s Terminal 1. This post reviews our time at the Sala Montale. In sum, Sala Montale was much nicer than I expected, especially for a lounge on Priority Pass, and we had an enjoyable experience. I would certainly return, but I would not leave extra early to visit the Sala Montale Lounge. There is better food and drink to be had in Milan!
Here is the group on our trip to Italy!
THE SALA MONTALE LOUNGE
The Sala Montale Lounge is one of five “Vip lounges” (that is a brand, not description) in Milan Malpensa’s airport. As of October 2024, it was not associated or run by any particular airline. Rather, any person flying can purchase lounge access online. Sala Montale is also on Priority Pass, which is how we accessed the lounge.
The Sala Montale Lounge is located in Malpensa’s Terminal 1, post-security in Boarding Area B. Sala Montale is only open to Non-Schengen flights. There is a maximum stay of 2 hours per both its website and a sign on checkin. I would note, however, I am not sure who this policy could be actually enforced given the size of the lounge.
Access to Sala Montale is located one floor above the main terminal via escalators or an elevator. Guests checkin to the lounge with a boarding pass and either a purchased reservation or Priority Pass (or something of the like, I think Lounge Key also has access).
Dan and his Uncle with the entrance behind them.
The 2 hour sign at the checkin desk.
THE SPACE AT SALA MONTALE
Sala Montale is large – over 13,000 square feet (1240 sqm) with 220 seats per its website. Once inside, the lounge is set up in a rectangular shape that is easy to navigate.
A map of the lounge.
From the checkin desk, the area to the left is reserved for VIP guests (not sure who qualifies for that), a conference room that you can reserve, and general guest seating in the form of brown leather chairs formed into groups. These chairs, as well as all of the furniture in the lounge, is made in Italy per Sala Montale’s website, which is pretty cool. The large futuristic lamps, which I actually found very interesting, are also made in Italy.
Just to the left of checkin. You can see the cool lamps.
Directly in front of and to the right of the checkin desk is the food and non-alcoholic drink buffet and a cafe are offering seating in the form of tables and chairs and bar seating to all guests. This area, as well as the general seating area to the left of the checkin desk offers floor to ceiling windows over looking Boarding Area B planes. We only saw US carriers, but you may get lucky with plane spotting.
The buffet area (faces have been blurred, which is why that guy looks headless).
The cafe area.
More of the cafe area. You can see the windows here.
Tables in the cafe. United flights in the background.
Moving around the square, as one turns the corner from the cafe/food buffet area, there is additional general guest seating and the self-serve alcohol bar, which also offers non-alcoholic beverages and a few snacks. This area also houses a children’s play room, a smoking room (yes, you can smoke cigarettes inside here), a luggage storage room and another conference room that you can rent.
More seating!
Turning the corner to round out the square, there is a bit more general seating, where we sat, in addition to the WCs and shower room.
The backside of the lounge (WCs and showers).
THE FOOD AT SALA MONTALE
Despite Italy being such a culinary icon, I have never been in an Italian airport lounge with great food (and I have been in several). The food at Sala Montale was, however, better than expected and a decent send off from Italy. As mentioned above, food is set out in a self-serve buffet. Hot food is only served from 11:00 15:00 and 18:00 – 21:30, but cold food is always available. On offer when we visited was a small selection of grab and go pre-packaged food, including San Carlo potato chips and the tastiest little chocolates, a cheese and yogurt bar, a salad bar, a selection of various hot bread-based things, a few trays of proper hot meal food (rice, vegetables, etc.), a soup and a tiny selection of desserts.
The pre-packaged selection. I appreciated the San Carlo potato chips.
The yogurt and cheese bar.
The bread selection.
Another of the breads. They were pretty good.
The salad bar. This was full except when I took this picture!
A few of the hot trays.
This little croissant filled with cheese and prosciutto.
The tiny dessert selection.
The only other food in the lounge is located in the fridge near the self-serve alcohol, which offered fruit cups, yogurt and quinoa.
The few snacks near the alcohol bar.
THE DRINKS AT SALA MONTALE
There are decent beverage options at Sala Montale, all self serve. For alcoholic beverages, there is a self-serve alcohol bar located near the smoking lounge. The small bar offers numerous spirits, red and white wine & two types of beer. As mentioned, everything is self-serve and there is no one monitoring the drink situation. Aperol and ingredients to make an Aperol Spritz are on hand, which is a nice touch.
The self-serve alcohol bar.
Lots of Peroni available.
Aside from alcohol, the drink bar’s fridge is stocked with soft drinks and energy drinks. An espresso machine is also in this area. The food bar also stocks bottled water, a decent selection of tea and another espresso machine.
Cold beverage cooler near the self-serve alcohol bar.
Lots of bottled water available.
Tea selection.
Juices and infused water.
Espresso machine.
OTHER AMENITIES AT SALA MONTALE
TVs playing sports and news were around the lounge. And as I mentioned earlier, there is a smoking lounge, a luggage storage room, a children’s play area and shower facilities.
The smoking lounge.
Luggage storage.
Shower facilities. We did not use these.
Conference rooms are available but must be reserved and a payment may be required. The website directs one to email the lounge to make a booking: clubseamalpensa@seamilano.eu. The wifi in the lounge was decent but we didn’t use it to login to work or anything like that.
STEAL OUR LOUNGE
Sala Montale: Milan Malpensa Terminal 1, post-security, located near Gates B50 – 59. Open daily 6:00 – 22:00. Complimentary access via Priority Pass for those on non-Schengen flights only. Lounge Key members also have access. 2 hour maximum stay.