Milan, a practical guide from people who lived there
Where to stay, how to get in from the airports, how to get around and what to see: all our guides to the city, and the things to know before you go.
Milan isn’t a city you visit the way you do Rome or Florence, chasing one monument after another. It’s a city you understand by living it: a neighborhood to sleep in, an area to explore on foot each day, an aperitivo in the evening. We lived here for years, and these are the guides we’d have liked to read before arriving.
Start with where to stay, which in Milan is the choice that shapes your trip more than any other. Then how to get in from the airports, how to get around the city and what to see. For the evenings, and for the days when you don’t feel like going out, there’s also our guide to food delivery.
The guides
Where to stay
Which part of Milan is worth staying in, from the center out to the nearby areas where you can spend less than in the best-known neighborhoods.
Open →Malpensa
The farthest of the three and the best connected: 41 minutes by direct train to Porta Garibaldi, for €15.
Open →Linate
The only one of the three inside the city: the M4 leaves from the terminal and reaches San Babila in a quarter of an hour, on a standard city ticket.
Open →Bergamo airport
It's Bergamo's airport, fifty kilometers from Milan: no direct train, and the connection is entirely by road.
Open →Getting around
Walking is our favorite way to move around Milan, but public transport here works very well. Tickets, times, options and other useful details.
Open →What to see
The areas of Milan to explore on foot, from the Duomo to the Navigli, with museum prices and hours and the corners tourists usually miss.
Open →Delivery
Dinner at home? A glass of wine? Something you forgot? The delivery apps worth using in Milan to get food, drinks and anything else brought to you.
Open →What to know before you go
The questions friends visiting us ask most often, with the short answer. The long one is in the linked guide.
Public transport
A ticket costs 2.20 euros
It's valid for 90 minutes with unlimited changes on metro, trams and buses. A day pass costs 7.60 euros. You can also tap a contactless card at the gate: remember to tap in and out.
At night
The metro closes around midnight
The last trains leave between 12:10 and 12:30 a.m., the M5 first. After that, night buses NM1, NM2, NM3 and NM4 run with the same ticket.
Tourist tax
3 to 10 euros per person per night
It depends on the accommodation, 9.50 euros in B&Bs and short-term rentals. It's charged for up to 14 nights, under-18s are exempt, and it isn't included in the price you see online.
Book ahead
The Last Supper, months in advance
Tickets are released in quarterly batches and sell out within hours. Without a booking you can't get in, not even if you qualify for free entry.
Museums
On Mondays almost everything is closed
Brera, the Castello, the Novecento and the Science Museum close on Mondays; Fondazione Prada doesn't. On the first Sunday of the month many civic and state museums are free.
By car
Area C: 7.50 euros a day
It's the charge to drive into the center, Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Isola is outside it, but has its own limited traffic zone: read the guide before arriving by car.
We always start from Isola
We write our Milan guides from the neighborhood where we lived, north of the center, between Porta Garibaldi and Porta Nuova. That's why the times and routes you'll find start from there.
Where to stay in Milan
Isola Urban Hub
Bright loft in the heart of Isola, walking distance from Porta Garibaldi and Bosco Verticale.
Carry on from here
Isola
Where Isola is, how it got its name, what it offers and why it's worth seeing or staying in. A guide to the once cut-off district that is now Milan's new center.
Open ↗Getting here
Getting to the neighborhood from Milan's airports and stations: which service to take, which one is worth it, and other things worth knowing.
Open ↗What to see
Isola is a neighborhood to live in, between art, markets, good food, tradition and modernity. Here's what you shouldn't miss.
Open ↗Where to eat
Isola has plenty of places to eat, from Italian classics to Asian food, pizza and aperitivo. At every turn the neighborhood has somewhere worth discovering. Here are the ones we recommend.
Open ↗