Best Driving Maps

I have been to Italy twice in the past two years and drove each time. I would have been completely lost without my garmin that I brought from home. I would suggest you take a gps and get the chip for italy. I bought mine directly from garmin. I like them better than the ones the rental car company gives you because it is in english and easy to use. You can get use to it in the states before you go. It saved me hours of being lost and probably from a divorce on aruging with my wife about directions.

Tom, great info. Thanks, but did you have a map as well? If so, where did you find it? I search Michelin and they have a general map of Italy, but not specific to Abruzzo. Would that do?
Again thanks.

We bought a map at a bookstore. I think it was Borders. We bought the map more to see generally where everything was not for driving. We really used the garmin to get where we wanted to get. I would go to borders and you will find a map you are comfortable with, but get the garmin.

Buy a Michelin, or similar map, at your local Barnes & Noble. They have a great selection of European maps. There are also maps available in the "Travel Store" section of this website. However, some of the maps may not give you the level of detail that other maps have at B&N.

Thanks once again. Since you know all about Garmin, do you have a model that you like? I just need a basic one or one that will handle the Italian road maps.
Suggestions appreciated.

I also like "seeing" trips on a map. Prior to our road trip from Germany to Italy, I google mapped everthing and saved as personal maps, so I could judge not only distance, but time between locations. With google earth I could see exactly where we were staying, follow a road to see how windy or not it was, and have a good idea of what to expect. We also had a map of Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Italy taped together on a wall for a couple months while we were planning where to go and where to stay.
But when it came to driving, we relied on the GPS. For city maps, we either used the RS maps, or a map we acquired in the town we were in, and more for walking, not driving.

You might like the maps that I bought when we were recently in Italy: they are published by the Touring Club of Italy (www.touringclub.it) and each map features 4 languages, including English. They are at 1:200,000 so are at a scale that shows the roads you will need. There is one for Abruzzo/Molise. I got mine at a bookstore in Rome's Termini Station and I picked up another one at a bookstore near Piazza della Republica in Rome. I'm sure you could find one in any good bookstore. The maps were 7,90 Euros each. With these maps and my Garmin, we were touring around Umbria and Tuscany as if we were locals. Except that I bet every one thought we were going too slow (driving at the posted speed limit)!

Diana, whern we first traveled to Italy and began renting cars (BGPS; "before GPS") we always took along a Michelin Road Atlas, heavy guide/map bpok that had every little road. After we got our TOMTOM (AGPS; "after GPS") we would just get a Michelin road map of the entire County. We would just go pick one up at the local bookstore, or order from Amazon, etc. Many times we would pick this up at the first service station we came to in the country where we were traveling.. We won't do a trip with just the GPS. In Spain, many of the East -West newer roads are not in any GPS; and the map becomes invaluable.

Thank you one and all. Your suggestions have been just what I needed. A combo package seems to be the solution. Thanks again.