Milan, Italy - day 3

So I decided to travel by train to Milan. Roughly 60kms away from Gavirate. The search for train station in Gavirate was rather challenging. Can I just say, there are no straight intersections here in Italy! So it doesn't quite work when you tell someone to go straight, turn left or turn right. Also, the signs and arrows doesn't quite point to the direction you should be travelling, it does however points to the road, yes the road! So yes, I got a bit lost going to a train station that is meant to be 10 minutes away.
Then, the tickets for the train. I stood infront of the machine pondering which "milano centrale" station I had to buy, there were three of them! So I decided to ask the lady at the ticket booth...
"mi scusi, palesi englisi?"
She replied in Italian, I had no idea what she is saying. I was expecting a short yes or no answer. So I continued
"milano centrale, return?"
To which she asked "due?"
I said "no, return"
She asked again "due?"
So I finally submitted and nodded.
Then she said "Gavirate, Milano Cardona, Milano Centrale" i took that as, get off at Cardona then change train for Milano Centrale. Easy!
Actually, it wasn't. I got to Cardona and expected to see a train with destination to "Milano Centrale" on the screen. But there wasn't any. So I asked the lady at the station gate "mi scusi, milano centrale?" and she points to a direction and said "metro". I take that as a subway line. So I had to exit that station and go to the subway line. Wait, there were 3 different subway lines! Which one should I go to...
So I asked the attendant near the metro line gate, asked if he understand English and he replied "a little bit".
"which train goes to milano centrale" and he point to the green line. But my ticket doesn't work!
I decided to call Mike... At this stage, the temperatue is around 34 and humidity felt like 90.
Mike then told me that Milan is only 5 minutes away from Cardona station! Ok that solves that.
The train ride lasted about 1 hour 45 minute. The train is similar to Sydney train, newer, air conditioned but definitely not a fast train!
So I decided to go to the closest attraction place using my iPad map and found the Sforza Castle. It was HUGE! the castle was designed by Leonardo da Vinci and the moat was later drained by Napoleon. The castle hosts a number of museums which I didnt go to. I was busy admiring the structures and taking photos, while trying to dodge the street vendors. They are mostly African selling cheap bracelletes which no one really needed from the looks of things. They follow you like seaguls! They even tried to speak Chinese to get my attention! Pretty impressive.
I walked around the city to check out the shops, they are pretty overrated. It's not the mental image I had for Milan, sorry but shopping in Sydney city is better.
So getting back to Gavirate was an interesting one, the train maps here DO NOT show all stations a train would stop at, pretty much the first and last destination with some stations in between. Helpful but not logical at all!
So again, I asked he train attendant "Gavirate?" to which he responded "Varese?" so I nodded, asfar as I understand, Gavirate is in the Province of Varese, so it must be right. But somehow I wasn't confident, so I decided to stop at Saronno and ask further question... Finally found a guy who speaks a little bit English who was able to tell me which train and platform I should get on. Phew! So It was the right decision to leave the Varese train. Which wasn't air conditioned and it felt like 70 degrees in there, and you still find Italian wearing sweater or jacket. Pretty amazing!