5 Easy Steps to Renew Your Milan Metro Card

In this household we love public transportation, and nothing beats the system in Milan. Ranging from buses to trains, Milan’s public transit system can take you anywhere throughout the city and even outside to more local surrounding areas. Though bus or metro strikes that can disrupt daily commutes are common, they are easy to adapt to. Oftentimes, strikes are announced ahead of time and apps such as Google Maps or Apple Maps will find an alternative route. Keep an eye on your email because local IES Abroad staff also sends out announcements about strikes! 

Preparing for and adapting to transportation strikes isn’t the hard part about using public transportation in Milan — even the routes are easy to follow after a couple of weeks. The hardest part is refilling your metro card for the first time. Don’t worry — thanks to IES Abroad, you won’t have to worry about this right away as the first month is covered. However, what about after that? There are two ways to refill your ATM card: in person and online. 

I personally wouldn’t recommend topping off your card online or in the app as it’s more confusing and you will need to obtain an Italian Fiscal Code, which is hard to navigate. Instead, refill at a red ticket machine in any metro station. At these machines you should be able to change the language from Italian to English, and from there it is five easy steps: 

1. Insert your metro card in the ticket machine
2. Click on “Refill”
3. Select how many months (tip: renew for all four months, so that way you don’t have to worry about this every month)
4. Answer “yes” to non-metro transit rides (this will include trams and buses)
5. Answer “yes” to having a printed receipt (that way you can add this purchase to your budget tracker) 

If you do refill your ATM card online or in the ATM app, make sure to find an orange machine and tap your card at the beginning of every month in order to activate your card. These totems are located in every station before tapping to get in. If you made your purchase in person, you don’t need to do this. Lastly, it’s important to note that the ATM card only works for transits going around the city. If you’re hoping to go outside of Milan via a train such as Trenord, you will have to purchase a train ticket. Luckily, travelling around Italy is very cheap!