Garmin Programing

I just did this my circa 2010 Garmin Nuvi, so I assume yours will be similar.

So you have the Italy map chip and it is installed in the Garmin?

Once you have that, go to offline or simulation mode, so the GPS won't be looking for satellites or directions from Barrie to Italy. Go to "Where to" and drill down the menu to "Address" where you can type in the address or "Points of Interest" where you can typ in the name of your target. Make sure you change the country to "Italy" before entering a town or address.

Once found, you can save it to Favourites, and then rename it to whatever you want.

I have a Garmin 2595LTM with a European map SD card and have used it successfully, more or less, for years in Italy. Although, we've never tried to preprogram the addresses before we were in Italy.

Generally, after turning it on we press the "where to" icon and then you can choose a different city and enter an address or you can enter a city and then look through a list of amenities such as lodging or transportation, etc.

When you are in Italy and first turn it on, it takes a few minutes for it to locate itself to your location. After that process you can then enter your info. Also, our Garmin has taken us on some unusual field trips, but we always reached our destination. Last September we were in Matera and wanted to find our hotel in the Sassi section. The hotel sent us an email with directions and warned us to only follow their directions and not use a GPS. I could find the directions and we drove through a festival in a piazza, along a pedestrian only street lined with cafes and people sitting outside, and then finally driving under a covered sidewalk to find the street. I had to call the hotel and the lady talked us to the hotel. Good memories.

You can always call Garmin customer service for help, as well.

Buon viaggio,

Do we have to be in Italy before we can do this?

No. You can either input the address or search using your device. Just be sure you select "different city" when searching.
Additionally, be sure that your Italy map is selected as one of the sources for your maps (under "settings")

I can't remember our number, but we have a Garmin that accepts SD cards and we bought the Italy/Greece card. I was able to sit down and enter a number of destinations when we went to Tuscany.

We picked up our rental car at Rome FCO. I started the Garmin, changed from mph to kmh, then pulled up our Tuscan agriturismo from my saved places. The Garmin routed us straight to it.

I hope you can get help with your particular unit. We found our Garmin very useful, but we also took a good folding map as backup. As added entertainment, we enjoyed Miss Garmin try to pronounce the Italian names of roads!

Here’s a link to instructions from the Garmin support website. Make sure you get your International Driver Permit, avoid ZTL’s, be mindful of traffic tutors and speed cameras.

Give the machine a good test before you go. I have had to buy new Garmins because their processor speed or their memory capacity "obsoleted" the device before it actually failed. Is your battery still good enough to take into lap for programming from the car? I've found that Garmins update the screen much more slowly when operated from a memory card. Check that the auto power adapter is working in your own car. Make sure the lighter fuse is good in the rental before you drive away!

As noted, offline, you can usually find a map screen (maybe under "more" for a location) that offers to "Set Location." That's how you can get it to search in Italy when you are not there. But if your location is Milan, the search for Naples hotels will be very slow, just as a NY search would be very slow in Ohio.

I doubt it's so important in Italy, but I was caught by the need to select "Avoid Ferries" in the Netherlands. Also beware of the same problems we have in the U.S. with rural addresses getting, sometimes, poor GPS instructions.

Thank you all for your input.
We had to finally call Garmin and found we had missed a step in the programming.
We have tried to input the towns and the Hotels/B&B's but some do not show up. I think once we are there they may do so.
We have programmed most of the towns and hopefully that will do. Since a lot of the cities and towns have ZTL zones we will
park outside the walls and with directions provided we will make our way on foot.
Again thank you.

You should be able to save the actual hotel addresses. I’ve never had much of a problem. Once we search on the city, we enter the address. Part of the problem is entering the address the way it is used in Italy, not the way we enter it in N. America. Usually it’s the street, then number, not number then street. Like other posters, i’ve had experiences where Garmin wanted to take me across a pedestrian only bridge, or up a cow path to reach a castle, or onto a nonexistent road.