sinisa wrote:So if i want to go from Saronno to Milan Piazza Duomo, i would:
- take the S1 at Saronno/Porta Venezia, take the M1 at Porta Venezia/Duomo
If I were you, I'd take the first train bound to Milan, be it an R or an S, wherever it goes.
R and half of the S take you to Cadorna, which is in the centre, within walking distance (or bus/tram connection) from sights like S.Maria delle Grazie (and Leonardo's Last Supper, but you must book for it), Museo della Scienza, S.Ambrogio, S.Maurizio and Archeological Museum, the Castle and its museum etc. Also Cadorna offers interchange with M1/M2.
The other half of the S go in the Passante (i.e. they fork at Bovisa from the other S). Here stops of some relevance may be Porta Garibaldi (which offers connection to M2) and Repubblica (which offers connection to M3) as well as Porta Venezia (which offers connection to M1).
M2 inbound from Porta Garibaldi will carry you again to Cadorna, but you can stop en-route or change with surface transport. Porta Garibaldi station is outside the centre (the actual Porta, i.e. gate of the spanish walls, is in P. XXV Aprile, down Corso Como which is a nightlife area, but for the rest does not offer much. If you stop at Moscova you can walk pedestrianized Corso Garibaldi (see churches of Incoronata and S.Simpliciano), at Lanza you are on the other side of the Castle, and near to the Brera area (with the famous painting gallery). Some modern architecture near Garibaldi station itself.
M2 outbound will lead you in 2 stops to Stazione Centrale (main railway station). The same occurs with M3 outbound from Repubblica. This is useful if you travel by long distance trains, or have to catch coaches to airports.
From Repubblica M3 inbound takes you to piazza Duomo and beyond. You might want to take a tram from Repubblica and do the route on the surface and see the medieval wall gate in piazza Cavour - via Manzoni and some of the houses. Or stop at Montenapoleone and explore the fashion shopping area (or visit the Museum of Milan in S.Andrea). The same stop on the other side (via Borgonuovo) takes you to the back of Brera, or you can walk along via Manzoni (Poldi Pezzoli Museum) towards piazza della Scala.
From Porta Venezia M1 outbound is not interesting, but corso Buenos Aires is a major shopping area (walk up to Lima or Loreto and then back by metro). M1 inbound takes you to the centre. If you are interested in liberty style, there are some houses very near (via Malpighi). Otherwise walk towards the centre, corso Venezia has nice XVIII century buildings (also some liberty ones behind via Cappuccini/Mozart, and palazzo Sommaruga on the corso itself, near Palestro stop). Also near the Natural History Museum and the villa Belgioioso (with Modern Art Museum, which means up to end '800, and nice neoclassic garden). From S.Babila stop you can walk corso Vittorio Emanuele (shopping area) to the back of Duomo.
Other sights in the Porta Ticinese area are reachable walking or taking trams 15 or 3, like S.Lorenzo (a 5th century central plan church, with byzantine mosaics in a couple of chapels and roman columns in the front, also noisy nightlife, and a nice rubber stamp shop), the medieval gates and S.Eustorgio (with a very nice medieval tomb in Cappella Portinari, and the Diocesan Museum, there should be a combined tickets for all 3 sights).
Beyond Porta Ticinese there is the Navigli nightlife area along the two canals (the westernmost of them, Naviglio Grande, is also within walking distance from M2 Porta Genova). Once these canals surrounded all the medieval city. A rest of the first lock (with an inscription of Leonardo's times) can be seen in via Conca del Naviglio (close to Porta Ticinese), while a waterless but intact lock is visible at the end of via S. Marco, in the area of Porta Garibaldi, but not so obvious to go without walking).
by sinisa » Sat 08 September 2012; 14:25 
