I will be using my phone while driving in Italy (I plan to get a SIM in Venice), using Google Maps.
I am just wondering if there are any does or don'ts when using it. The reason I ask is the when I used it to drive in England I didn't know to use a Postcode, which would have prevented me from making an error that cost me a couple of hours of driving time.
Thanks -
george
Yes, that can be a problem, but postal codes would be awkward to discover in Italy, I think. There are many similar location names - especially involving saints. You can distinguish them almost always by the province they are in (MI Milano, SP La Spezia, VR Verona), or by the full name (Santa Margherita Ligure). One 'do' is to download the Google Map of the area you'll be in for off-line use while you have wifi service. Then for areas with no cell signal you'll have continuity. Also it's more convenient to add the address of known future destinations to 'Your Places' when in an easy chair than making a passenger enter an address while bouncing down the highway.
Thanks for the reply. I actually do the latter but downloading a map is a good idea to add to it.
george
The downloaded maps are a good idea, as stated previously. In case there is no reception, put the phone in airplane mode, and it becomes a GPS. No data or WiFi needed.
George, I have used my phone or a Garmin GPS a few times to drive in Europe. Although I find them extremely helpful, I always study the driving route ahead of time for any sort of significant drive. E.g. I'll look at the map on Google Maps on my laptop. OK, I see it should take about two hours. Then if I type in an address on my phone and it says four hours...I know something is up, e.g. mistyped a postal code or something. I use the GPS to tell me exactly how to get from point A to point B, without remembering every turn, but I already have a general idea which direction I am going, what kind of drive it will be (freeway? back roads?), and about how long it will take - but I use the GPS to save me some of the time-consuming hassle of figuring out the exact directs. Using common sense in my driving has helped a lot, without 100% relying on technology!
