Osteria Francescana is in Modena. The lunch service starts at 12.30. There are seven tables. A booking is the most contested object in Italian gastronomy. The chef is called Massimo Bottura. The restaurant has held three Michelin stars since 2011 and was the world's number-one restaurant on the Restaurant magazine list in 2016 and 2018. The tasting menu, depending on the season, runs around €380 a head before wine.
Modena is fifty kilometres north of Bologna. It does not have a commercial airport. It does, however, have a small grass-and-asphalt airfield called Modena-Marzaglia (LIDM), six minutes from the historic centre, with a 980-metre runway, a coffee machine, and one ground handler. It accepts light aircraft.
This is the most quietly excellent day trip in Italy. You leave Milan Linate at 9.30 a.m. on a Wednesday, you are at the table at Osteria Francescana for 12.30, you eat the Five Ages of Parmigiano-Reggiano and the Oops! I Dropped The Lemon Tart, you take a short walk through the cathedral square, and you are back in Milan by 19.00 in time for an evening at La Scala or a normal dinner with anyone you don't want to know that you spent your lunchtime this way.
Why You Are Doing This
There is a category of trip — and we believe in this category strongly — that gets dismissed as silly because the headline sounds like an Instagram caption. Lunch at a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in another country, by private plane, back the same day. It does, on the face of it, sound silly.
But: a return flight Milan to Modena on a small aircraft costs about as much as a single business-class ticket to Rome. The lunch is, regardless of the plane, the lunch you wanted to have. The combination is not extravagant on a per-hour basis. It is, in fact, the cleanest application of light aviation we know of: the airline does not fly Milan to Modena, the train involves a transfer, the drive takes ninety minutes plus parking. The thirty-minute hop on a Cirrus or a TBM is the correct answer to the question "how do I get to Osteria Francescana from Milan in time for lunch."
The trip works equally from Bologna (forty minutes by car, but no flight needed), from Rome (ninety minutes by air, the best way), from Geneva (an hour and forty minutes by air, surprisingly easy), or from London (a Mustang to Bologna, then helicopter or driver to Modena — the most ambitious version). Milan-Modena is the cleanest illustration.
The Aircraft
For a 30-minute leg with two to four passengers, the realistic options are:
- Cirrus SR22 — single piston, fast for its class, three passengers, the cheapest option that makes practical sense. Around €1,800 return Milan-Modena.
- Diamond DA42 / DA62 — twin piston, four passengers, all-weather, around €2,400 return.
- Piper Meridian or TBM — single turboprop, five passengers, fastest, around €3,400 return.
- Citation Mustang — light jet, four passengers, total overkill but available, around €4,800 return.
The right answer for a couple is the Cirrus or the Diamond. The right answer for a four-top is the Diamond DA62, which gives you the all-weather flexibility and a real cabin.
We have a Milan-based operator who flies a fleet of three Cirrus SR22s and one DA62, all out of Milan-Bresso (LIMB) and Linate. We use them for around half the Modena day trips we book.
The Airfield
Modena-Marzaglia (LIDM) is the kind of airfield that pilots write affectionate things about. It is run by an Aero Club, has a tarmac runway 980 metres long, an unmanned tower (you self-announce on the radio), and one administrative office, which is closed for two hours at lunchtime. There is no customs because you are flying within Italy.
You will be met by a man called Roberto, who runs the handling. Roberto has been there since 2003. Roberto will drive you the six minutes to the centre of Modena in a slightly old Mercedes, or, if you prefer, your own car will be waiting at the gate. The walk from the car drop to the door of Osteria Francescana, across the cobbles of Via Stella, takes two minutes.
If you fly during a high season for events (the Mille Miglia rally passes through Modena in mid-June; the Maserati factory has its open days in September), you will need to book the slot ahead. Otherwise the airfield is quiet enough that you can confirm the day before.
Where You Eat
Osteria Francescana is, of course, the destination. The two practical things to know:
The reservation opens 60 days in advance, on the 27th of each month, for the second following month. (For example, July reservations open on May 27th.) You need to be online at 09:00 Italian time. The reservation system is at osteriafrancescana.it. We can help with this — we have a reservations contact who works with us — but the rule is the rule and luck is involved.
The tasting menu runs around €390 in 2026. Wines (paired) are an additional €280-€420. The "Tradition in Evolution" menu is the deeper dive into Bottura's translations of Emilian classics. The "Sensations" menu is the more avant-garde of the two. Both are extraordinary.
If Osteria Francescana is fully booked — and most weekends, it will be — the alternatives in Modena and the immediate hinterland are not consolation prizes. They are arguably more fun:
Franceschetta 58, Bottura's casual sister restaurant, ten minutes' walk from the original. Around €70 a head. Booking required, but available. This is the smart move when you want the Bottura kitchen without the three-month wait.
Antica Moka, just outside Modena, one Michelin star, classical Emilian cooking done with rigour. €120 tasting menu. The kind of place you take a parent.
Ristorante Vinicio, in Soliera, one Michelin star, a destination for cured meats and aged Parmigiano. Twenty-minute drive from the airfield. Lunch around €80 a head.
Hostaria Giusti, in the centre of Modena, no Michelin star, a 17th-century deli and trattoria with four tables and a list of cured culatello that defies belief. Lunch around €60 a head, no booking, you queue from 12.
What Else You Do With Your Day
You are in Modena. Modena's centre is a UNESCO World Heritage site for the Romanesque cathedral, the Torre della Ghirlandina, and the Piazza Grande. You should walk through it.
Modena is also the capital of balsamic vinegar. Acetaia Giusti, ten minutes from the centre, is the oldest balsamic producer in continuous operation (1605) and runs tours of the acetaia (the loft of casks). Twenty-five euros, ninety minutes, you taste vinegars from 12 years old to 75 years old. Book ahead.
Maserati's factory is in the city. The Museo Enzo Ferrari is here too. Both have public tours for which you can pay forty euros and have a perfectly good time. The serious move, if you are a car person, is to email us in advance and we will arrange a private tour of the Pagani factory, which is in San Cesario sul Panaro, twenty minutes from the airfield. This is not a public option. It is by introduction only.
If you have a digestive's worth of energy after lunch — you will not — Bologna is a thirty-minute drive south. We do not recommend trying to fit this in.
The Numbers
A Wednesday day trip Milan-Modena, two passengers, return on a Cirrus SR22, lunch at Osteria Francescana (Sensations menu with wine pairing):
- Aircraft (return Milan-Modena, including waiting): €1,950
- Handling at both ends: €180
- Roberto in the Mercedes (return): €80
- Lunch at Osteria Francescana, two of you, with paired wines: €1,580
- Acetaia Giusti tour (afternoon): €50
- Sulu concierge fee (including reservation assistance): €350
- Total: €4,190
For two people, that is €2,095 each, of which the lunch is the majority. The aircraft and the logistics, by themselves, are about €1,200 a head — the difference between flying and driving is the difference between a five-hour-round-trip on a working day and a three-hour-round-trip on a working day, which in our view is what makes this trip mid-week rather than weekend.
For four people on a DA62, the same trip is around €5,200 in total, or €1,300 each. The economics improve sharply with passengers — as they always do in this category.
A Note On The Date
Osteria Francescana is closed on Sundays and Mondays. The restaurant takes its summer break in August. The best months to do this trip are May, June, and September — Modena's primavera and autunno are both lovely, the city is light on tourists, and the kitchen tends to be at its sharpest.
Other Versions Of The Same Trip
The same day-trip logic works for several other restaurants in Italy that are not on a commercial flight route:
Da Vittorio, three stars, Brusaporto (between Milan and Bergamo). Fly into Bergamo, twenty-minute drive. Wednesday is the right day.
Reale, three stars, Castel di Sangro (Abruzzo). Fly into Pescara, ninety minutes by car, or a small strip at Lago di Campotosto for the brave.
Le Calandre, three stars, Rubano (Padua). Fly into Padova-Gino Allegri (LIPU), ten minutes from the restaurant.
Piazza Duomo, three stars, Alba (Piedmont). Fly into Cuneo (LIMZ), forty-five minutes by car. Combine with a Barolo cellar visit.
We have done all four. We can pair an aircraft and a reservation for any of them. Modena is the cleanest first attempt at this kind of trip — but if you want a longer list of three-star day-trips by light aircraft, ask us.
Message us on WhatsApp or Telegram. The booking window for Osteria Francescana opens on the 27th of each month — we usually plan two months out, which is when the operator slots are also at their best price.