GPS for Italy

Any app downloaded on your smart phone works well: Google Maps, Waze, or whatever..

I have a European map card for my Garmin and it works just fine.

I too have European maps for my Garmin. In addition, I download Google maps to my phone of areas I’ll be visiting for offline use. When in airplane mode, your phone is simply a GPS and doesn’t use any data. I bookmark locations (usually small out of the way) I want to visit that aren’t on my Garmin maps. Both have served me well on numerous trips.

what kind of GPS do you use at home?

Thanks everybody. Nigel, I use my phone.

if you use your phone at home you can use it in Italy. If you downloaded all the maps you need you wouldn't need phone service with data use. But you would not get updates or closed roads or traffic. Or you might go beyond your downloaded maps.

Much easier is to invest in a sim or phone plan with sufficient data, then you can use it like at home with no worries...

We bought the Italy/Greece map for our Garmin when we visited Tuscany in 2015. We also had our iPhones and paper maps. We could have easily done without the Garmin. It turned out to be just one more thing to keep up with.

After a few days, we found sitting with a map at breakfast and planning our day's trip was plenty. By then we had learned the main roads and how to read the road signs. Our trip from Greve to San Gimgnano/Volterra and back was done without any electronic aid.

A smartphone app is the way to go as current conditions can really make a difference when there's a major event on the autostrada. We use Google Fi phones and we have the same phone number and service in Italy and the US. Using mobile data can add up, but it's manageable with forethought. It's still a good idea to download Google Maps for offline use as Italy's mountains can create dead zones.