Midweek in Milan

spank_inferno

Hi

My better half & I were on a 2 day midweek break to Milan and I'd like to share my review/impression of the place.

Getting there.
Flew to Linate airport, Its the closest to the city, about 8kms east of the city centre.
A top tip for getting to the city is the Number 73 bus.
You can purchase a ticket for €1 in a newsagent called "Itinerate" near the exit and the bus is outside exit 7 of the airport.
Its a normal suburban bus so stops frequently.
However a taxi driver said it would be €60 minimum so the value is obvious.

Jorney time was about 45 mins (half an hour on the trip back to the airport)
The number 73 terminus is in the city centre next to the St Babila metro stop.

Public transport.
Is frequent, cheap and works very well.
The metro stops have ticket machines that operate in english. We got a 48hr ticket that gave us unlimited use of all Urban public transport systems for €5.50 each.
Taxi's are ok. They are clean, & the drivers polite.
However Milan traffic can be very bad thus using a taxi can become expensive.

Accomodation:
We stayed at the hotel Lancaster.
This was a 3 star hotel in the north of the city centre beside the Park Sempione.
It was a pleasent hotel, with good bathroom facilities & was clean. The staff were always helpfull and polite. The breakfast was also very nice (continental but with plenty to choose from).
It cost us €99 per night.

City.
Milan is a very vibrant cosmopolitan city.
Relatively safe, with a visible police presence, it still has the same roma/african people trying to sell you string, bird seed or anything.

As expected the architecture is very impressive.
The Duomo cathedral is the last word in Ornate sculpture.
I was most impressed by Galleria Vitor Emmanuel II.
A truely beautiful building, I couldnt believe when I walked in and it was a shopping mall.

We also went to the San Siro to see AC milan get beaten by Lazio in a freezing Copa Itilia game.
Tickets were purchased from the Bank SanPaulo on Corso Sempione/Via Polizia.
€33 for a halfway line seat in the lower tier.
Pay with cash and bring your passport
Another top tip: Banks seem to have metal detectors
In the door of the banks there are lockers to stow your bag, phone etc.
Us not speaking italian took a while to work out why we couldnt get in!.
Tickets are also sold at the milan superstore in the city centre.

Overall.
Milan has much to offer. its expensive to eat out and shop ( to be expected) but getting around is cheap & easy. Whether its sport, culture or just relaxing Milan is worth a look.

BuffyBot

Thanks for the review.

Irish_Nomad

Good report but I'd disagree with a couple of things.

I presume the taxi price at the airport was from someone touting for business. You should ignore them (in general you should steer clear of those guys anywhere) and queue at the rank outside. It is much cheaper. It's a few years since I lived there and I couldn't remember exactly so I checked http://www.toandfromtheairport.com/milan.html and it quotes €15-20 to get to the city centre.

Also I didn't find eating out expensive. There are exceptions of course. If you want to eat on Corso Vittorio Emanuele or in the Galleria you'll pay a substantial premium for the location but you can find plenty of places nearby that are good and very reasonable.

spank_inferno

I dont doubt your right Nomad.
There was a few of the taxi guys handing around the airport and considering the short distance to the city, the fare was ridiculous.

Agreed that there is always a premium on eating around the tourist hotspots, but we had no foreknowledge of the city and zero italian to get by, though the locals we found were always polite, they didnt seem to mind having "capise Inglese?" thrust upon them

UpCork

Was in Milan recently and I have to say, I've seen better places. Perhaps because it was very rainy when we were there, but to me it didn't seem to have the 'umph' that other European cities that I've been to had. Still though, we found a few nice places to dine/drink in that I wouldn't be adverse to visitng again.