GPS in Tuscany

You asked "Are the roads clearly marked in Tuscany?"

No, they aren't. The Italian concept of road signs is different than ours.

Yes, you will need a GPS!!! I just used mine in May and went from Florence to Siena and San Gimignano. It was "spot on" all the time. Piece of cake! You should buy a Garmin (talking) with European maps and learn to use it and program it before you go. Some of them have features that help you find parking (points of interest). You can get them fairly cheaply if you shop around. Try Amazon.com. You won't need a map. You will get lost with a map; there are traffic circles everywhere and the roads splitting off of them are NOT well marked. DO NOT RENT YOUR CAR IN FLORENCE FROM THE TRAIN STATION OR FROM ANY LOCATION IN THE CITY CENTER (especially from Hertz). If you get into the city center and cross into the ZTL "Zona Traffico Limitato" you will receive steep fines in the mail up to a year later. To make it worse, HERTZ will charge YOU for turning you in to the local police when they come knocking. Reserve your car at the AIRPORT and take a taxi there. You will be just that much closer to the Autostrada anyway. Trust me on this. The airport rental locations have longer hours also. By the way, at the toll booth on the Autostrada, the slot where you place your ticket is also the slot where you place your credit card. It took me a couple of minutes to figure that one out.

I agree with pretty much everything John said above. We used our talking Garmin with European maps all over Umbria and Tuscany in May and June. It was absolutely amazing how accurate it was, and how easy it made everything.

We never had a paper map, never needed one. You can zoom out on the Garmin anytime you want and get a bird's eye area map view just like you'd have on paper. Each time you tap the - button, it zooms out a step farther,so you can see just what you want. And no problems folding it back up like a paper map!

Anna, I agree. You definately need a GPS. You're right, the cost of renting one is so high that it is worth buying your own. We purchased a "talking" Garmin with preloaded european maps on Amazon for $225. They also had a lesser model w/preloaded european maps, but we wanted the one that spoke the street names. Definately worth the investment and now we have it for our next trip!

I drove without a GPS in Italy and wouldn't do it again. I had driven in Northern Europe with nothing more than a good map with no problems but Italy is much different. Streets have names but no signs.

We found our way but not without lots of stops for directions and multiple wrong turns at what looked to be "about the right place".

Get a GPS and let it take you directly to the address rather than spending too much time being lost.

any suggestions of the model of Garmin?

Reply to post immediately above:

Garmins have been extensively reviewed on this website

and here are all those discussions

We have the 275T and it worked great for us. Just 1 problem finding a dirt road (not surprised) and it needs to be updated as it did not have a new highway near Venice, otherwise it was great and my husband commented numerous times that it was a savior and it would have been miserable without it.

Anna,

Also consider the TomTom. My TomTom came with one year free updates which meant we could update it before our trip so it had all the latest road information without paying extra. It may be worth pricing the update cost into your GPS purchasing decision.