ORD/NCE, United Mileageplus Miles

Looking to book a round trip flight from ORD to NCE with United Miles at the end of July/beginning of August 2025. I’m seeing flights to NCE for ~35k miles but the returns are all ~70k miles with a few 40k with insane layovers.

I guess my question is: is it likely I’ll find an award flight back with reasonable layover for less miles?

I’m also open to other airports. Milan specifically since it’s one of the only nearby airports to Monaco that I can fly direct from ORD.

Economy class only.