Milan Travel Guide

We start our list with the most polemic subject, which is the number of days you need to spend in the city. Unfortunately, most of the people believe Milan is just a transit city where you go spend one or two days and then you go your real destination.

For us, after being able of doing both versions (the short and the long trip), we can tell you that in the short trip we only managed to see some of the most popular attractions, and when we decided to stay for 4 days, we got to see some places that not many people know about, and the experience was so much better.

If you only want to visit Milan, we would advice you to at least be there for three of four days, and if you end up having free time, you can always to day trips to places that are located close to the city.

Of course, when travelling to a new country or a new city, the first thing you need to know about is its requirements. In this case it´s very simple because Milan doesn´t require much.

For example, in our case, since we are from Spain, as it happens with the rest of the European Union countries, we just need to show the “DNI” (the identification card), and then we will be able to enter the city. That means we don´t need to have a Visa or something else.

In case you are coming from out of Europe, we advise you to check at your government website to see what they ask for. Other than that, we also recommend you to always go with a travel insurance, especially after al we have seen with the COVID.

Being honest, we could spend days just talking about how the different seasons of the year are in Milan, as each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. But this time we are just going to let you know which is the best season in our opinion.

First of all, we are going to advise you to avoid the cold and rainy season, of course, during this time there are less tourists (and that is nice), but the days are much shorter, and there is not such a great atmosphere as when you travel during spring, summer or beginning of autumn.

So, since you also don’t want to go on high peak season when it´s all very crowded, we are going to recommend you going between May and June, or between September and October.

No matter if you are going to spend a lot of time in the city or not, we believe the best way to get to know the city is with a guided tour where they tell you all the facts and the secrets of the city. It´s true that if you go by your own, you are going to have more freedom, but you won´t probably learn much about the city.

There are many tour options out there, but since we are cheap people, we are going to recommend you doing a FREE tour, of course, they are not completely free, but you only pay what you consider, so it´s a very cheap option.

This tour we link you below, we believe it´s the best one, as it´s like a three-hour tour that shows you the most iconic places of the city. And once it´s done you still have a lot of time to visit the places by your own if you want to.

Malpensa: It´s from where we flew to go back to Madrid on our last trip, and it´s actually the most common one. The problem with this airport is that it´s located about 50km away from the center, so you will need to buy a ticket for the Malpensa Express, which costs 13€, or get a taxi which can go up to 100€.

Linate: It´s the best airport of al of them, as it´s located only 10km away from the center. Unfortunately, not many “low-cost airlines” fly there, so you will need to pay more for your flight tickets. Once you arrive to Linate, you can just get the regular bus (73 y X73), which costs around 1.5€.

Bergamo: The option of flying to Bergamo is not so bad, you can get the Terravisión or Orio Shuttle busses, which are around 5€, or go by train for 7€.

Obviously in a Milan tourist guide, we had to talk about the food, right?

Well, actually, what we are going to tell you about is useful for Milan, and for every single city of Italy, as the food over there is useful everywhere you go.

We only want to say, that you should not be cheap in terms of food, save money with the flights, with the hotel, and with everything you want, but not with the food. Anyway, the monuments are not very expensive, so expend all that money in eating a good risotto, a great dish of pasta, and many delicious pizzas.

Another of our best tips to travel to Milan is that you should book the tickets for the attractions with enough time ahead. Specially if you are going on high peak season.

We wanted to visit the “Pinacoteca di Brera”, the day where they have a free access and of course, the tickets were sold out and we were not able to see it at all. Well, that was bad, but imagine not being able of visiting the Duomo cathedral, that would be worst right?

Specially for the most visited places as the Duomo and the paint of “The Last Supper” of Da Vinci, you should book them as soon as you know you are visiting the city.

If Milan is known as the capital of the fashion is for a reason, right? Well, it´s very reasonable that when you visit the city you get excited for going shopping, everyone dresses classy and very elegant over there so no one is going to judge you for wanting to go to buy clothes.  

We just wanted to tell you that the prices over there are not very cheap, so going shopping can be a little bit painful. They have some of the most luxury shops in the world.

That´s why when choosing your shops, you must be careful with where you go. For example, we visited the shops of the Vittorio Emmanuelle II Gallery, and we show that just a pair of sneakers could cost 900€. It was crazy!

On a tip to Milan, you may want to leave some free days to do excursions. There are like a million places you can go on a day trip from Milan, you can go to Como Lake, Turin, or there are even people who visit cities that are a little bit far away such as Venice.

Now we will tell you which are the best options for day trips, but we just want to tell you that these excursions take the whole day, so make sure you have a great organization to do the day trips, but also have enough time to see Milan.

Some of the best day trips are: Lake Como and Bellagio, Swiss Alps on the Bernina Express, and Lake Maggiore.

The last of our Milan Travel tips has a lot to do with the Duomo. We are sure, that if you are reading this Milan city guide is because you are interested in getting to know the city, but we still need to say it. Most of the tourists only came to Milan to see the Duomo and it´s a huge mistake.

In Milan you can enjoy delicious food, you can take a boat through the canals of Navigli (as If you were in Venice or Amsterdam), you can visit one of the best cemeteries in the world, and you can do many other impressive things.

So, take the chance, and visit the whole city… You will love it!

Currency: As it happens with the rest of Italy, the currency of Milan is the Euro.

Language: It´s also obvious, but in Milan the speak Italian. Other than that, you should know that there are many international people living in the city, so almost everyone speaks English.

Time: In Milan as in all Italy they have the Central European Time (which by the way, is the same than in Spain)

Phone code of Milan: +39

Visitors per year: Although it´s not as Rome or Paris, don´t think you will be all by yourself in Milan, as it gets a lot of tourists every year. Being more specific, around 6 million people go to Milan every year.