Traveling on Public Transport in Milan

The public transport system in Milan is quite mature and efficient. Bus, tram and metro are all integrated. You can buy your tickets at any news stand for 1 euro. With this ticket, you can travel for 75 mins on bus or tram for as many changes as you wish, but you can only travel for 1 trip on Metro.

To save the hassle of buying a ticket every time you take a train or bus, you can also buy a 10-trip pass - a Carnet (pronounced as car-nay) at 9.20 euros. When you travel on train or bus or tram, just validate it by inserting it into the yellow box at the metro entrance or at the bus/tram stops. The time you travel on train/bus will be printed on the reverse of your carnet as a record. It serves as a souvenir for travelers, too.

Usually there is no conductor to check your ticket, but don't take chances, they do check! I encountered once when I traveled from Duomo to Central station. The station staff did come out to check other passengers' tickets.

Updates:

1. A colleague just told me that I can actually get a season pass. The cost for making the pass is 10 euros. The cost for a one-year pass is 300 euros, for a one-month pass is 30 euros, for a one-week pass is 9 euros. This is a very economical way of traveling on Milan's public transport system. The season pass works the same as the ez-link card in Singapore. You tap it at the reader when you enter the Metro station. Upon exit, you just walk out, there is no need to tap your pass again.

2. I found out yesterday that if you use your carnet or ticket on a tram, it is valid for 75 mins. If you change from a bus/tram to a train within the 75 mins, you don't have to pay extra. Another way to save on transportation cost, it can be quite substantial if you have to transfer between trains and tram/bus.