Practical information for visiting Milan

Italy's four national operators (TIM, Vodafone, WindTre and Iliad) give dense, reliable mobile coverage across Milan — this is the country's business capital, and the network reflects that. Visitors from elsewhere in the EU can use their home data allowance under EU roaming rules; visitors from outside the EU will usually find a local prepaid SIM cheaper than roaming, and operator shops are easy to find around Centrale and in the central shopping streets.

Public wi-fi is available in parts of the city and in most cafes, hotels and museums. Two practical constraints are worth knowing. The metro is below ground and coverage there is patchy in motion, and the older palazzi and museum interiors have thick masonry that cuts signal noticeably — which matters because Milan's single most time-critical booking lives on a phone. Download the Last Supper ticket before you travel to the church rather than relying on loading it at the door; the slot is 15 minutes long and does not wait.

For municipal matters the Comune di Milano runs a contact centre on 020202, which is the official channel rather than any third-party service.

Milan is a safe city by the standards of large European ones, and the risks a visitor actually meets are property crime and bureaucratic rather than violent.

• Pickpocketing is the main issue and it is concentrated predictably: the metro, especially crowded trains and the interchanges at Duomo and Centrale; the cathedral square itself; the Galleria; and the tram and bus routes that serve the centre. Milan's transport network is the city's great convenience and also the place where bags get opened.
• Centrale station and its immediate surroundings warrant ordinary caution late at night, as main stations in large cities generally do. The station itself is busy and policed; the streets immediately around it are quieter than the volume of people passing through suggests.
• Driving into a restriction zone is the most expensive mistake a visitor makes here, and it is invisible at the time. Area C charges €7,50 a day for the historic centre and Area B bans the more polluting vehicles from most of the municipality, both 7:30 to 19:30 on weekdays. Cameras enforce both, and the penalty arrives by post weeks later. If you have driven in and are unsure, ATM's Area B and C Infopoint in the Duomo metro mezzanine (8:30–15:30, Monday to Friday, by appointment through the ATM app) is the place to resolve it.
• Unlicensed sellers and street approaches operate around the cathedral square and the castle. Buying from them is a poor deal and, for some goods, an offence for the buyer under Italian law.
• Summer heat in a plain where the air does not move is a genuine risk in July and August rather than a discomfort, particularly in the middle of the day.

The Polizia Locale can be reached on 02.02.08. For property left on public transport or handed in to the city, the Comune's Found Objects Office is at via Friuli 30, open Monday to Friday 8:30 to 12:00, with information on 02 884 53900.

Milan has the strongest concentration of healthcare in Italy, with major public hospitals and specialist research institutes serving the city and the wider region. Visitors from the EU carrying a valid EHIC or GHIC card can use public healthcare on the same terms as Italian residents; visitors from elsewhere should carry travel health insurance, because treatment is billed directly.

Pharmacies are plentiful and display a green cross. Rotas cover nights and holidays, and the duty pharmacy is posted on the door of closed ones. For anything urgent, 112 reaches medical services.

Two conditions specific to Milan are worth planning around.

• Summer heat is the main seasonal risk. The Po plain does not ventilate: heat accumulates through the day, peaks pass 35°C, and it does not clear overnight the way it does on the coast. July and August afternoons are genuinely demanding for anyone walking a museum circuit, and the city's own residents leave in August partly for this reason.
• Winter air quality is a measured problem with a published response. The same still air that produces the plain's fog also traps particulates. The Comune operates graduated temporary measures under the Regional Air Quality Intervention Plan, triggered by the daily PM10 limit of 50 µg/m³ being exceeded continuously at the reference stations: at least two days activates first-level restrictions, at least seven activates the second level. In practice that means traffic bans on the oldest diesel classes, and limits on wood-burning heating and open fires. Anyone with asthma or a respiratory condition should expect worse air here in a windless winter week than in most Italian cities, and bring their usual medication rather than assuming they can buy it.

Emergency number: 112, free from any phone, and the single number for medical emergencies, the Carabinieri and emergencies generally. It routes to the right service and operators handle calls in English.

Police: 113. Fire brigade: 115. Financial Guard (Guardia di Finanza): 117.

Polizia Locale (municipal police): 02.02.08.

Comune di Milano contact centre: 020202 — the city's own line for municipal matters, including questions about fines and permits.

Lost property: the Comune's Found Objects Office, via Friuli 30, open Monday to Friday 8:30 to 12:00, no appointment needed to collect. Information and appointments on 02 884 53900. Items handed in by the police, ATM, the postal service and other bodies are collected here too, by appointment.

Area B and Area C queries: ATM's Infopoint in the Duomo metro mezzanine, 8:30 to 15:30 Monday to Friday, by appointment through the ATM app. This is the one to know if a hire car has entered a restriction zone, because that is the mistake visitors make most often in Milan and the penalty otherwise arrives by post long after they have gone home.