What should I avoid in Milan?

The restaurants with laminated photo menus along Via Orefici and Via Mercanti, the two streets flanking the Duomo, charge €16-22 for a margherita that tastes like it came from a hospital cafeteria. The dough is pre-made, the mozzarella has that rubbery industrial stretch, and the waiters add a coperto of €3-4 per person that the menu board outside doesn't mention. Walk 2 minutes east to Via Santa Radegonda and join the queue at Luini, where a panzerotto fritto costs about €4 and the fried dough cracks open with molten mozzarella and tomato inside. For a proper sit-down, Trattoria Milanese on Via Santa Marta has served risotto alla milanese since 1933. The saffron tints the rice a deep amber, not the pale yellow of the tourist-strip version, and a plate runs about €16. Mind you, they close between lunch and dinner, so showing up at 3pm gets you a locked door.

The bracelet sellers around Sforza Castle and Parco Sempione work in pairs. One ties a woven string around your wrist while talking fast. The other blocks your path. They want €5-10 for something that cost them nothing. Pull your hands into your pockets as you approach the castle's Piazza d'Armi entrance and keep walking. The petition crews near Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II are more aggressive. They hold a clipboard with a charity header, ask for a signature, then demand a cash donation of €20 or more. Say 'no grazie' once without stopping. Rose sellers work the restaurant terraces around the Navigli and Brera after 9pm. They place a flower on your table uninvited, then expect €5 for it. Hand it back immediately. If you set it down, they treat the sale as complete.

A taxi from Malpensa to the city center costs a flat €95, set by the Comune di Milano. The Malpensa Express train runs every 30 minutes to Milano Centrale, takes 51 minutes, and costs €13. From Linate, the M4 metro line now connects the airport to San Babila in about 12 minutes for a standard single-ride ticket of €2.20. For getting around the city, a 24-hour ATM transit pass at €7.60 covers unlimited rides on metro, tram, and bus. Four trips and the pass has already beaten buying singles. Inspectors board trams on the 1 and 15 lines near Corso Buenos Aires regularly, and the fine for an unvalidated ticket is €55 on the spot.

Do not visit Milan in August. Half the restaurants in Centro Storico close for ferie, the traditional summer holiday, and the ones that stay open tend to be the tourist-facing places you were already trying to avoid. The first two weeks of August are the emptiest. Temperatures sit around 32-35°C with Po Valley humidity that makes your shirt stick to the small of your back by 10am. If you're coming for the Last Supper at Santa Maria delle Grazie, book tickets at least 8 weeks ahead through the official Cenacolo Vinciano website. Only 25 visitors enter the refectory in each timed 15-minute slot, and walk-up availability is effectively zero from April through October. Tickets cost €15 each. Leonardo's 4.6-by-8.8-metre fresco covers the entire north wall, and the room takes about 30 seconds to cross.

Skip Corso Como on Friday and Saturday nights unless you want to pay €15 for a Negroni in a plastic cup while pressed against strangers. Isola, one metro stop north of Garibaldi on the M5 line, has bars along Via Borsieri where the same drink costs €8-9 in a proper glass with a seat. The Navigli canals look atmospheric in photos, but on summer weekend evenings the banks of Naviglio Grande fill with teenagers, spilled Peroni, and street vendors selling knockoff bags on blankets. Go on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening, when you can sit along Alzaia Naviglio Grande and hear the canal water against the stone embankment. Travel forums oversell the danger around Stazione Centrale, but the north side of Piazza Duca d'Aosta does get uncomfortable after 11pm. Groups linger in the underpass, and the side streets off Via Sammartini have poor lighting. Walk the south exit toward Via Vittor Pisani, which stays well-lit and busy past midnight.