Best Map to have while planning Italy trip

For planning your itinerary at a high level - like, 3 days here, then 4 days there, then 3 days over there...any map is adequate (in fact, just using google maps is fine).

For actually navigating around Italy - especially driving - the gold standard is Michelin. You can find Michelin maps at any good book store or travel store, or online from amazon.com. Excellent maps!

Agree with David. For planning purposes, Google maps and Google Earth are more than adequate. The street view feature is also handy. We even used them offline to get around the cities on foot a few times.

If you end up getting a paper map for driving, get 1:200,000 scale from either Michelin or Touring Club Italiano, availabile on Amazon.

We bought our Michelin Sicily map on Amazon. That’s the only place we could find one. For planning, we used Google maps. As was already stated, street view provides a view of exactly what you’ll see when there. I’m also going to download the Sicily Google map to my phone and tablet for offline use while there.

Thanks for the replies.

I checked Amazon for Michelin maps of Italy and there are a zillion! Do I want a "national" map?

Any input is truly appreciated!
Thanks!

Millie

I checked Amazon for Michelin maps of Italy and there are a zillion! Do I want a "national" map?

For driving around the USA, would you want a "national" map? The same logic applies to Italy. For example...

You want to figure out which highway to take from Naples to Rome? Or from Chicago to New York? Then a national map is perfect. You'll get almost zero detail, but you'll get the big picture.

You want to figure out how to get from one small town in Idaho to another? Or from one village in Tuscany to the next one? Then you want something that shows all the little roads, with as much detail as possible.

You are blessed with an abundance of good choices.

Thanks David!

Makes sense. Just a bit overwhelmed with so many choices.

Millie

Keep calm! You will do fine.

One small task at a time, break big challenges down into little ones and chip away at each, one item at a time. What you're doing right now - going over details, making smart choices, keeping track of everything, collecting all the details so they'll be easy to find/do when you're on the road - that's how you end up with a smooth, trouble-free, relaxing trip. Many of us find that the planning itself can be as much fun as the actual trip. It's part of the process of discovery, learning, and getting excited about the adventure ahead.

You got this.

We used a Garmin GPS in France (bought the France map) and used our Android phones when in Spain this spring. Both worked very well for navigation. For planning, I like tourist books to for the 'zoom in' look at cities. For Spain, I bought the largest map of Andalucia (south west) Spain I could find (it was a Michelin). It was fun for me in the early planning stages but it was not worth anything as the trip approached.

For planning a trip with many options, I use Google Maps and put a little green "Want to Go" flag in each possible town and site to visit.

I also buy a paper map and then make a couple of copies of it so that I can highlight or circle towns and write in the travel time or distance between towns. Also, I scribble in WHY we might want to go to each place because it's easy to forget.

Some people can do this sort of planning by writing it all down, but I find that I have to SEE it on a map to understand how it's all going to work out.

We'll be in Italy in November, too, visiting Piemonte and the towns of Liguria that are not the Cinque Terre or resorts. SOOOOOO many options on this trip!

nancyscherer8's response reminds me: when we recently visited Barcelona and Madrid, I found a great color map of Madrid online (11x17") and printed my own taped-together map for Barcelona.
Both printed maps had the metro stations - I colored in the metro line connections (w/ right colors)
I labeled all the sights we wanted to see and then put their open/close times in the margins, so we had a quick refercence - our plans changed quickly, based on jet-lag or ..... and these maps helped in the quick re-planning.
I then threw the map away when we left the city.

As part of my planning process, I make my own maps on the computer (this starts as soon as the trip is loosely defined, and all the details are added over the months we do detailed planning). I add all the stuff I will need to know when we're there - accommodations, possible stops, attractions major (must-do) and minor (a menu of choices we might get to depending on circumstances), estimated travel times (useful to know if we're going to stick to our schedule), notes from online sources (like this forum's), etc, etc. I print that home-brew map out and have PDF copies of it on our phones and iPads for while we're out and about. I find it incredibly useful. Also makes a nice souvenir after we get home. :)

I'm sure some folks would cringe or roll their eyes at the prospect of making their own maps, but I enjoy the process and find it super helpful to have on the trip, especially as I'm a visual learner, and it provides a tremendous amount of detail at a glance. It's a great resource that's the product of all that planning.

That said, when we're driving, for real navigation I'll have the GPS, phone/tablet and the Michelin map all out and available.

I do the same thing David; make maps of the area near the place I’m going, or a downtown area. I’ll also add a photo (snip from street view) of intersections I may otherwise miss, or road signs. They have come in handy.