A car is not the easiest way to enjoy Milan. As for all big cities, traffic can be extenuating and most of the nightlife and historical parts of the city are “cars free”. On top, there are almost 220 cameras ready to take pictures of your plate where you were not supposed to be and send a very expensive postcard back home.
The Municipality basically wants you to drop the car for public trasportation, which is by far the most enjoyable and cheapest way to explore. More info on public transportation here.
General rules for parking on the street are:
- white lines – free parking (dont’ start partying, there are just a few and far from the city center)
- blue lines – toll parking (depending on the area, ranging from 0.9 to 2.5 euros an hour you can pay at blue automatic machines always nearby)
- yellow lines– residents only (you’ll get the car towed away, almost guaranteed)
Other options are:
- private parking: there are lots of them scattered around the city, just Google them but pay attention not to drive in a restricted area to get there. Can be expensive, depends on car size: from 15 to 30 euros a day it’s “normal rate”. You can have a look here to book a spot:
- municipality parking: there a few parking managed by the municipality of Milan near metro stations. You can browse them by connecting to GiroMilano ATM website here and select “P” on the map. Selecting a single parking area will pop up info on available parking spaces and rates. In this case it normally ranges from 7.5 to 10 euros a day. Here is a map to give you an idea, you may easily find all those parking areas on Google too.
To make thing even more complicated, Milan has two huge cam controlled areas called “Area B” and “Area C”.
Area B covers the whole municipality, it’s always active but you most likely don’t have to worry about it: it’s basically only to control heavy polluting vehicles. More info here.
Area C is a ring that outskirts the historical center where access is restricted and you must pay a toll to drive inside. Again, plenty of cameras everywhere. Most of the private parking inside the Area C will deal with the pass activation so if you use one of those, ask the parking staff to activate the pass. The price of the Area C pass depends on the polluting level of your car (goes from nothing for EV to 20 euros a day for old cars). If you want more information or you want to buy and activate the pass on your own, visit this site here.
Here is a map to show all Area C gates:
So, pretty complicated. Avoid to drive a car in Milan, if you can 🙂