Milano

Milan (Italian: Milano) is financially the most important city in Italy. It has the second most populous city proper in the country, but sits at the centre of Italy’s largest urban and metropolitan area. While incorrectly not considered as beautiful as some Italian cities, having been partly destroyed by Second World War bomb raids, the city has rebuilt itself into a thriving cosmopolitan business capital. In essence, for a tourist, what makes Milan interesting compared to other places is that the city is truly more about the lifestyle of enjoying worldly pleasures: a paradise for shopping, football, opera, and nightlife. Milan remains the marketplace for Italian fashion – fashion aficionados, supermodels and international paparazzi descend upon the city twice a year for its spring and autumn fairs. Don’t get fooled by the modern aspect of the city, since it’s one of the most ancient cities in Europe with more than 26 centuries of history and heritage.

Milan is famous for its wealth of historical and modern sights – the Duomo, one of the biggest and grandest Gothic cathedrals in the world, La Scala, one of the best established opera houses in the globe, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, an ancient and glamorous arcaded shopping gallery, the Brera art gallery, with some of the finest artistic works in Europe, the Pirelli tower, a majestic example of 1960s modernist Italian architecture, the San Siro, a huge and famed stadium, or the Castello Sforzesco, a grand medieval castle and the UNESCO’s World Heritage Site Santa Maria alle Grazie Basilica, containing one of the world’s most famous paintings: Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

More information on Wikitravel

Milan has two main international air gateways, Linate airport and Malpensa airport.

• Malpensa Airport
  The main international airport is Malpensa (Milan Malpensa, IATA: MXP). It’s a large, modern, two-runway airport. The airport has two terminals, with Terminal 1 being the largest (international and intercontinental flights). Terminal 2 is used by a number of budget airlines, such as Easyjet, and has grown consistently in the last few years.

  The two terminals are connected by a free shuttle bus service (running approximately every 20 minutes). Such shuttles are very small and the frequency is inadequate: long queues tend to form, which prompts several taxi drivers to station right next to the stop and pick up those passengers who don’t want to or can’t afford to wait. It is not uncommon for passengers to wait up to 40-45 minutes for the transfers: most shuttles are packed, forcing passengers to wait for the next one.

  Airport Transfer

  • Malpensa Express Trains
    The Malpensa Express Trains between Malpensa and Milano Cadorna is recommended as the easiest and fastest connection if you travel from the terminal 1 of Malpensa airport to the city centre (or vice versa), though it may be crowded at rush hours. Trains to Milano Cadorna leave every 30 min from Terminal 1, arriving at Milan’s Cadorna train station after less than 40 min (the Cadorna station is connected to Milan’s subway network, at the intersection of the red M1 and green M2 lines). Some trains are not-stop while some trains stop at some intermediate stations (usually Busto Arsizio, Saronno, Milano Bovisa). Non-stop trains take 29 min to reach Milano cadorna, while stopping trains take 36 min. The last train departs at approximately 11:20PM, so if you arrive on a late flight or are delayed then you will need to take a bus or taxi. After the last train there are both buses that connect to Milan Cadorna station and buses that connect to Milan Central station. Taking the train is not recommended if you have to reach Terminal 2, as the connections between T1 and T2 are very poor.

    Fare: one-way €11, round trip in a single day €14.50. A new offer allows a family (or group) up to 2 adult and 2 children (up to 18 year old) to travel one-way for € 25. Your ticket must be bought and validated in the station before boarding. It isn’t possible anymore to buy tickets on board. The only option for a passenger without a ticket is to contact a ticket inspector when boarding or immediately after boarding (a surcharge of €5 will be added to the cost of a full rate single ticket in this case).

    The Malpensa Express Trains between Malpensa and Milano Centrale connect the the terminal 1 of the Malpensa airport to Milano Centrale. These trains also connect to Milano Bovisa and Milano Porta Garibaldi. There are 1 or 2 trains each hour. These trains stop at Milano Bovisa, Milano Porta Garibaldi and Milano Centrale. Some trains also stop at Busto Arsizio, Saronno, and some trains also stop at some intermediate stations.

  • Bus
    Buses leave approximately every 20 min for Centrale Station and Linate airport, costing about €10 and €13, respectively. Travel can take from 40 minutes (weekends) to 1 hour or more (during weekday mornings). Buses are the best bet if you arrive at Terminal 2. Since you need to take the slow airport internal shuttle bus to get to the train station, you might as well get on a bus directly to Milan. There is always a bus waiting, and they usually wait until the bus is completely full before departing.

    From Malpensa Airport Terminal 2 directly to Milan, there are a number of stands for various bus companies. One tried-and-tested service is called Malpensa Shuttle. Buy your ticket at the stand in arrivals (card accepted) before boarding the gaudily coloured bus in the car park. There are 2-3 buses per hour, and the bus terminates next to the taxi rank by the east entrance of Milano Centrale. A single costs €10, or you can ask for a return ticket for €16. For the journey from Centrale to Malpensa, there is a ticket stand near the east exit of Centrale, and the bus is boarded at the adjacent bus stops.

  • Taxi
    Using a taxi to get from Malpensa to the city center is expensive: €90 (fixed fee for a City-Airport trip, without further stops). Only taxis registered in Milan itself have signed up to the fixed fee agreement – taxis from outlying cities (which you will also find at Malpensa) have not signed on to the agreement, will still take you to Milan but will charge you the meter reading (generally €80+ in light traffic). If upon entering a taxi you do not see a card on the window or rear of the driver/passenger seats, then you are in a non-Milanese taxi. You can request the fixed fee if the driver refuses, then take the next taxi in the rank. You may find that if you take the fixed fee from a non-Milanese taxi then they take a slower non-toll road rather than the toll paying motorway (tolls are ALWAYS paid by the driver so are included in the meter or fixed fee). For more information about taxi fare see (in Italian, the fixed fares between airports and the city are in the bottom part of the page)
  • Other Vehicles

    Easy Private Taxi transfers to Milan City Centre – sedan at €80, minibus at €95
    123TransfersPrivate transfers to Milan City Centre 3 persons from €93.50, minibus at €108.75
    Avis and other car hire firms are available at Milan airport Terminal 1.
    You can reach Milan by Trenitalia trains departing from Gallarate train station. A bus service is available from Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 to Gallarate.

    You can also connect to Trenitalia trains in Busto Arsizio FS (also called Busto Arsizio RFI) station. A train (currently replace by bus, see note below) runs every hour, during daytime only, from Malpensa airport to Busto Arsizio FS (also calling at Fermo and Busto Arsizio FNM). and vice versa. First train from Malpensa airport to Busto Arsizio FS at 07:10. Last train from Malpensa airport to Busto Arsizio FS at 20:10.. First train from Busto Arsizio FS to Malpensa airport at 07:39. Last train from Busto Arsizio FS to Malpensa airport at 20:39. The journey takes 14 minutes. For full timetable of this service look at column in blue colour in the full timetable of service by Le Nord between Milano, Malpensa and Novara (this connection is not shown in some shorter timetable). In Busto Arsizio FS station trains from Malpensa Airport arrive at platform “1 tronco” and train to malpensa airport depart from platform “1 tronco” (platform “1 tronco” is not the same as platform 1). If you want to connect to a train service by Trenitalia (or other operator on the railway line managed by RFI) you will need to change platform. Trains from Milan arrive at platform 4. Trains to Varese (and other Northbound trains) depart from platform 4. Train from Varese (and other Southbound trains) arrive at platform 5. Trains to Milan depart from platform 5.

    From 1 July 2010 until unknown date the rail service between Malpensa airport and Busto Arsizio FS is suspended. It is replaced by a bus service which take 38 minutes for the journey. Until the railway service is suspended the total time of the journey is greatly increased and so this route is not advisable.

    From late September 2010 a new train service is being started connecting Milano Centrale to Malpensa terminal 1 directly by train with trains coming from other city in Italy (e.g Naples, Rome, Florence, Bologna). These trains after calling at Milano centrale will go to Malpensa airport terminal 1. Standard fares from Milano Centrale to Malpensa airport T1 (or vice versa) are €13 in 2nd class, €16 in 1st class. As middle September 2010, there are just two service per direction per day. Departure times from Malpensa airport terminal 1: 12.21, 18.10 journey time 42 min; from Milano centrale: 08.57, 15.57 journey time: 54 min. (Note: these services are in addiction to the Malpensa Express train service to Milano Centrale, see above. Note that ticket are not interchangeable between the two type of trains).

• Linate Airport
  Some European or national flights arrive at Linate Airport (IATA: LIN). This small but rather efficient one-runway airport is very close to the city centre (7 km). It is mostly serviced by airlines to domestic destinations and some European destinations. After the bankruptcy of the ‘old’ Alitalia and its merger with AirOne, the new airline abandoned Malpensa in favour of Linate.

  Taking connecting flights in Linate might take much longer than elsewhere because there is no through passage: you get off the airplane, get out of the security area, go through security again together with those passengers who have just arrived from Milan and not with a connecting flight, and only then can you board the new plane. If you’re taking a connection from abroad it doesn’t make much difference, because in these cases you have to go through security again (say, London to Palermo via Rome Fiumicino), but if both flights are domestic then you don’t have to go through security again if the airport has a through passage (e.g. Palermo to Genova via Rome Fiumicino). This is common in most countries: the rationale is that apparently no one seems to trust security checks performed by other countries.

  Airport Transfer

  • Bus
    Since the airport is so close to the city, it is served by buses of the city public transport network: Bus no. 73 outside the terminal building goes to San Babila Square, in the city centre, which is served by metro line MM1. This bus is not a dedicated service but a city transportation network bus with many stops en route, may get crowded during peak hours. The bus runs every ten minutes and costs €1.50. This bus service is managed by ATM, the public transport company of Milan. Tickets can be purchased from the newsagent inside the airport terminal or by the ATM vending machines close to the bus stop. Remember to validate the ticket when boarding the bus. With the same ticket, you can transfer to the metro (subway) system once and unlimited buses or trams in a 75 minute period. You can also directly use a comprehensive ticket to many places in the suburbs. Information and timetables available from the ATM web site. To catch the right 73 bus from the airport to Milan, look for direction “SAN BABILA M1” and avoid Line 73 buses directed to “S.FELICINO” (be very careful not to take a bus to San Felicino, because not only you would go in the wrong direction, but you would also be considered without a valid ticket for that journey) . On the other direction, when going from the city centre to Linate airport, you can get both buses directed to Linate airport or to San Felicino. During daytime the frequency of the bus is one bus every 5 to 10 minutes.

    A new express service Bus no. X73, by ATM, connect the Linate airport and San Babila Square, in the city centre and vice versa, via a route similar to the bus 73, but with just one intermediate stop (at Dateo, where interchange with the Passante Ferroviario is possible). As it is a direct service it takes less time than the normal 73 bus and it is usually less crowded. The advertised journey time is 25 (but take into account more time than this, especially if you are travelling in peak time). This express service operates only weekdays 7AM-8PM and there is an express bus every 20 minutes. The ordinary ticket of €1.5 is accepted on this route, no supplement is needed, and you can transfer to the metro (subway) system and other bus (for more details about tickets see above and the Get around section).

    A dedicated bus service, called “Starfly”, operated daily 06:00 to 23:30 by Autostradale, connects Linate airport to Milan central station running approximately every 30 minutes and tickets cost €5 per adult (ticket sold at local newsagent and on board). This bus also stops on route at Lambrate railway station. The journey takes approximately 27 min.

    A bus service, operated by Malpensa Shuttle connects Malpensa airport to Linate airport as well as Malpensa to Milan’s Central train station (timetables, fares and ticket booking available online). The journey takes 30-60 min, depending on traffic conditions.

  • Taxi
    Taxis from Linate to the city centre cost around €12-20 depending on traffic conditions. The minimum charge is €12. If you are going to the centre, ignore all the guys standing at the exit to the terminal saying “taxi” they are for destinations outside central Milan (ie, outlying cities) and will charge a minimum of €70. Queues for regular taxis can get long during peak commuter hours (early evening) and are particularly bad during Fashion Week.

Some budget airlines fly into Orio al Serio Airport (IATA: BGY).
About 45km north-east of Milan near the city of Bergamo. Ryanair refers to this as Milan Bergamo Airport.

Airport Transfer

• Train
  Trains to Milan leave from Bergamo station, which you can get to by shuttle bus or taxi, but is quite far from the airport. Buses to Bergamo are run by ZANI and take 10 minutes, at a cost of around €1.50. Trains from Bergamo to Milan run every 30-60 minutes and take around 1 hour. Adult one-way fare approx €4.
• Bus Services
  All buses leave for Milan from immediately outside the arrivals section of the airport and from Ferrante Aporti on the east side of Central Station in Milan for all the companies below.

  Autostradale run a direct bus from Orio Airport to Milano Centrale station, which is probably the best choice. Departure times may vary, but buses generally run every half hour during the day, less often at night, and take about 1 hour or more. However, beware of cutting things too fine, because the highway to Milan is very crowded during weekdays. Adult one-way fare: €5.00. Tickets are sold in Orio Al Serio Airport in Bergamo and at the Central Train Station in Milan. Be at the Milan Bus stop at least 15 minutes before nominal departure time, or you may get left behind. Tickets can be purchased online, but sellers at the airport and train station will offer 3 tickets for price of 2.

  Zani Viaggi also run a bus service from Bergamo Airport to Milano Centrale station with a stop at the Cascina Gobba MM2 station on the North Eastern outskirts of Milan. Adult fare: €9ish one way. Tickets sold at an office in the airport or online.

  There are several other bus shuttle companies, e.g. Orio shuttle that offer direct bus services from Bergamo airport to Milan central, Malpensa and Linate airport. It is advisable to not buy the bus tickets online beforehand, because then the passenger has no choice but to wait for the bus the he/she has booked. Once you get out of the customs area, there are a lot of kiosks and agents, who will offer bus tickets to city center at €9 return, or €5 one-way. This gives flexibility to choose the first departing bus, instead of waiting at the airport.

• Taxi
  Taxis will set you back maybe €100 from Orio to Milan.