Best value reliable GPS for Italy

We used a Garmin when we lived in Italy. At that time (it has been three years since we returned) it was the best-rated GPS for Italy. It included features like location of traffic-speed monitors on the Autostrada, petrol stations, rest stops, and so on. It also did a pretty good job of pronunciation.

Thanks, Laurel! I appreciate it!

When we've rented cars in Europe, one option was to rent a GPS thru the agency. I used AutoEurope and for a much more economical price, they will send you a Garmin preset for maps for countries you are visiting (Italy). However, the last couple times we've been in Europe I've used a phone app, maps.me. It works offline, the same as a GPS with step by step instructions. You download the appropriate maps when you have wifi. So before you leave home or while you are traveling at your hotel or other places. It worked really well when we rented a car in Spain. We've just returned from Italy, and while we didn't rent a car, we used it for walking instructions and also while we were on trains to better follow when to get off the train. I love this app.

Maps.me is free. You could download to your phone and work with it before you leave for Italy to determine if its right for you.

Laughing because while driving for work last month in California’s Central Valley a Garmin sent us over 20 miles the wrong way, while I sat in the backseat with my maps.me app shouting at those in the front seat we had missed the turn and were headed the wrong way. I was ignored. 😠

Tom, that happens to us with the built in GPS in our RAV4 occasionally. Usually on country roads near the coast. I have to say our unit in Italy did try to send us over a footbridge once in Tivoli... Worked great in Tuscany, though!

Thanks, Tom, Jules and Laurel!

sent us over 30 miles the wrong way

Did it have an error in the database or had the destination been entered incorrectly?

My Garmin sometimes sends me the wrong way and it is always because I told it to take me to the wrong place. Lots of similar names out there... but maybe not in California (unless it was the aliens over from the nuclear test grounds in Nevada?)

I also used a Garmin in Italy and it worked perfectly.

The GPS in my phone has served me very well in Sicily and mainland Italy, as well as numerous other countries. I download the maps for the country while in the US and use them offline. On my last trip I got a UK SIM with a data plan and used it while I was online.

Thanks Bob and Nigel! I hear that there’s stuff penalties in Italy for using cell phones. That’s another reason why I’ve been considering a GPS which sits on dash with some sort of a mount.

I’m just not sure that the maps.me would be quite as good as a dash mounted gps system. I did download app and Italy maps though to play around

The last couple of times that we rented a car (most recently in Portugal), the car came with built in GPS. So even though we opted out of the GPS option, we got it anyway. Besides that we used our phone app.

I hear that there’s stuff penalties in Italy for using cell phones.

Only if you’re talking on the phone and not using a hands free device. I take a dash mount and use either Google Maps or Waze with no problems. No GPS is perfect so throw some common sense into using one. You can download Google Maps on line and use your phone in airplane mode. It will guide you but not provide current traffic info. I always get a local SIM card in Italy for €30 because I like the security of being able to call and text, contact my lodging, do on the go research.

Just purchasing the European maps from Garmin runs $60-100 in addition to the cost of the GPS.

If you have a smartphone, all you need is to download Google Maps and/or Waze.
Although I don’t use Waze much in the US, I do in Italy because it warns you of Speed Cameras, which are ubiquitous in Italy.
In terms of data usage overseas,
if your provider is TMobile, which I recommend (I finally switched from the exorbitantly priced AT&T), then you don’t have problems, because you have international data in Europe as part of your package.
If you have some other mobile phone provider, then you can buy an international data package for the time you travel. AT&T for example gives you several levels of data for ranging prices.
The cheapest option however is to buy an Italian SIM card and have it installed in your phone for 30€ (for one month).. If you have an IPad with a SIM Card slot, you can also have an Italian SIM card installed in it for even less (I think it costs less than 10€ for a month, plus the cost of the SIM card (another 10€). You can use Google Maps or Waze on your iPad as well. In that case you may want to invest in a car mount for iPad, also known as a car tablet holder, like the one pictured below (there are many types).

Car Phone Tablet Holder Magnetic,PLDHPRO Dashboard Dash Windshield Mount 360° Rotating Super Strong Magnet TPU Suction Washable Strong Sticky Gel for iPhone iPad Size 4"- 10" Tablet https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GNYH2ZD/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_N7y0DbWK8ZER4

Nigel: Neither, it's because computers are fallible! I never use the beastie things but the excuse was something like the background street file needed to have been updated.

Instead of taking the 69 mile way we took the 92 mile way.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Sonora,+CA/37.2743693,-120.4367444/@37.5810148,-120.8145099,10.25z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m5!1m1!1s0x8090c5d00be20bf9:0x16d807f676254777!2m2!1d-120.3821724!2d37.9829496!1m0

Commentary: People get so dependent on GPS that they don't know which way is north or even what planet they are on. I've had coworkers start to program the GPS to get to a restaurant that is in sight of the hotel parking lot.

For a trip to Italy, I bought a GPS with European maps on Amazon that was far less expensive than renting one for a week. Brouse Amazon for current options. Depending on your telephone data plan, Google maps or similar can also now be a good option.

I found GPS in Italy to be extremely useful as not all turns are intuitive. Had I just been following a map, I'd have missed a turn more than once (e.g. sometimes you must circle right to turn left). I did find it helpful to load destinations before I left, as the GPS didn't always recognize the addresses I initally tried to put in. That saved a lot of time once I arrived.

I used my Garmin in Sicily and it worked fine. I plugged/saved all our stops into it before leaving. I also used Google maps downloaded for offline use, for those locations not on my Garmin. It too worked fine. Garmin has tried to take us off road in Spain a few times. Once outside of Burgos it tried to take us across a pedestrian only bridge. The settings will help determine how you get from point A to point B; take highways, avoid highways, fastest route, shortest route, etc. I’m always leary when it says to turn onto unnamed road, and all I see is a dirt path or farmer’s field. It’s an experience. What I did notice about using my Garmin in Italy is the way Garmin has a town spelled may be different than Google’s spelling, or the way it’s actually spelled in Italian. That’s where saving destinations before departure came in handy.