Getting around Milan

Milan is a metro city, and the Milan metro is simple: four coloured lines crossing at a handful of easy points. Anyone arriving from London or Paris will find it almost elementary.

The lines

• M1, red — the east-west axis. It touches the Duomo, the Castle, Loreto and reaches Rho Fiera. The most useful line for visitors and for trade fairs.
• M2, green — Central Station, Porta Garibaldi, Lambrate, the Navigli. The line of trains and technical universities.
• M3, yellow — the north-south axis: Central, Duomo, Porta Romana.
• M5, lilac — automatic and driverless. Bicocca, Isola, Garibaldi, out to the San Siro stadium.
• M4, blue — from Linate airport to San Babila, via Porta Romana.

The interchanges that matter: Duomo (M1-M3), Loreto (M1-M2), Centrale (M2-M3), Garibaldi (M2-M5), Cadorna (M1-M2), San Babila (M1-M4).

Tickets: the simplest thing is not to buy one

You go through the gate by tapping a contactless card or your phone, on the way in and on the way out. The system counts your rides and charges the cheapest fare at the end of the day: if you travel a lot, it caps itself at the day-pass price. No app, no queue, no zones to understand.

If you prefer a paper ticket, the machines are in every station and speak English. An urban ticket covers one journey with unlimited changes within a time window, and works on trams and buses too.

One thing to watch: always use the same card in and out, and if there are two of you, tap separately. One card cannot cover two people.

Hours

First trains around 05:40, last ones around 00:30 from the terminals — so if you are in the centre at midnight you will make it, but do not stop to chat. On Saturday nights some lines run later.

After closing there are replacement surface lines following the metro routes by bus. Reliable, but slow.

Trams and buses

Milan's trams are part of the landscape: some carriages date from the 1920s and are still in regular service. Tram 1 crosses the historic centre and is effectively a sightseeing tour for the price of a ticket.

For our neighbourhoods, the trams and trolleybuses along viale Sarca and through Città Studi cover what the metro does not.

Bikes and scooters

Milan is flat, which makes it a cycling city. There is a public bike-sharing scheme with fixed docks, plus several free-floating operators for bikes and electric scooters. Cycle lanes have grown a lot but are not yet a continuous network: in the centre you ride among the trams, and you need to watch the rails.

Taxis and cars

Taxis are taken at ranks or booked, not hailed in the street. Ride-hailing apps work, with fewer cars than in other cities.

Do not rent a car if you are staying in the city. Milan has a paid restricted-traffic zone in the centre (Area C) and a very wide low-emission zone (Area B), and parking is expensive and awkward. A car only makes sense for the lakes or the mountains — and then it is better rented on the day you need it.

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