GPS for car in Italy

Any language you like.

We used a TomTom with great results including through many tiny hill towns in the le Marche region.

I have used my Garmin in both Italy and France. It picked up one way streets correctly and even streets that were so small I couldn't believe it knew about. I got bought my chip online and very easy to install. Don't leave home without it. By the way, I tried the ones in the car and did have some difficulty. I don't have the patience to learn how a new system works when I am on vacation, I just want to hit the road.

I have used Garmin's in Italy, France, Germany and Ireland and they worked just fine. The GPS's I have used allowed you to change the language.

Don't forget that getting lost sometimes is half of the fun of travel. You might find lost country roads with wonderful spots to visit that a GPS would never send you to. When I was living in Florence, my friends and I would take our motorcycles and roam around and get lost in the meanders of country roads of Tuscany. We often found beautiful spots, like unknown villages, castles and wineries off the beaten path that we would have never known they existed. So use your GPS judiciously. Turn it off once in a while and see where adventure takes you. Then when you need to go back to your home/hotel, just turn it on and follow the instructions from the machine.

Even as a carry-on only traveler, a GPS makes our pack list. Renting a GPS with your rental costs nearly as much as buying a new one, and it's important to know how to work your GPS when you get there rather than figure it out as you go. We drove many times in Europe before ever getting a GPS, a trip to Italy did it for us. Not only are most streets in towns and cities not marked but most buildings don't have numbers on them. The GPS finds addresses you never could by looking for signs/numbers. The signage on the autovias are the worst anywhere. Rather than a logical system of "A1 West, 1 mile" they have one sign right before the exit, no time to check a map, that lists several small towns you've never heard of. Unless you know every town along your route, you will miss your exit. Since it's a toll road, a missed exit means you drive 10-15 minutes to the next exit, pay your toll, find a way across the via, find an onramp, drive 10-15 minutes back to get back on your route. You lose 20-30 minutes, or more, each time you make a mistake. Even when you know you want to go west at the next exit, the exits aren't clear about the direction they go. Invariably, the exit that looked like it would take you west bends around and sends you east - and creates the same 20-30 minute delay.

can you tell me what product you used? I have a Garmin 40LM and there are so many choices. Not sure I understand what to use what for. The one that looked good, Italy Navigator, says it is discontinued. We mainly will need the GPS to get from Pisa to Siena, Siena around Tuscany Hill Country and Siena to Florence. Not going to use the cars in the cities. Thanks!! Ellen

I would not travel and drive in Italy without a GPS. I would purchase one with maps of Europe and NA at home as it will be cheaper than renting and you will know how to use it. When we traveled the GPS allowed us to explore the back country of Tuscany and Umbria with confidence as we could always find our way back to our hotel or next destination. The GPS is an invaluable tool.

We purchased a GPS for our last trip, and set the language to Italian for a local trip. Great fun! After a couple hours, we learned right and left in Italian as well as recalculo (we kept making wrong turns)!

One thing I really like about having a GPS is the ability to turn down those roads that you don't know where they lead. You can wander to your hearts content and the GPS will always help you find your way back.

I first purchased a TomTom 920Go, which worked pretty well. After five years or so, it died so I had to replace it. I first tried a TomTom, but the device I bought online didn't work. I made the mistake of trying to fix/replace it. I should have just returned it for a refund and tried again with another device. I spent hours on the phone with TomTom's tech department and ultimately shipped it to Texas to be replaced. Texas sent me the wrong device, so I shipped it again (paying both times) - and again they shipped me a used device with less features than the new one I had purchased. I gave up and bought a Garmin Nuvi 275, which is what I took last trip. I think the TomTom worked better, but it may just be that the Nuvi 275 is more of a budget device than the 920Go. The Garmin worked only okay. It got completely lost twice in cities (Valdepenas and Jaen, Spain), wanted us to go the wrong way on a one way street (Segovia), started us going north one morning when we should have been headed south, and worked one of three times using as a handheld device while walking. At home, it rerouted me through gridlocked downtown DC to avoid traffic on the beltway. I certainly wouldn't use this without taking it's advice with a grain of salt (and having a general knowledge of where you want to go).

Ellen, I just got back from Italy. Even the locals used Tom-Tom. I can't speak for Garmin there, but the Tom-Tom unit identified the photo-cops, which avoids those speeding tickets you can get months later. The forbidden streets were NOT identified, so you still have to check for signs.
I was just a listener/passenger, but the Tom-Toms seemed to give much less notice of turns (at least in Italy), and because of the peculiarities of civil engineering, sometimes it had us parallel to where we were. I guess they do really well given the mountains, etc. Happy adventure to you! (My first few days I mostly covered my eyes in traffic, then I observed the natural order of driving.)