How do you find an address?

If you have a precise address, you can simply enter it into Google Maps and it will give you a very accurate placement. You can then zoom in to any level of detail you want. You can also see a satellite image. If it's a main street, you may even be able to use the little "man" button and go into "street view" and virtually walk down the street. But yes, addresses in much of Europe, are less systematic than in the US because much of the development occurred before the automobile and the desire for streets in a grid.

When we were in Florence I remember looking for a specific address as we were invited to dinner at the home of a friend. It was our first night and we had trouble locating the building. It was just a couple of blocks from the Uffizi and the address we were given turned out to be a restaurant. We asked someone, inside, for help and they explained that residential and retail addresses were in different colors. The actual "residential" address was over a block away from the exact same "business" address. Can't remember the colors but it sure helped knowing that info for the rest of our week there.

Lin, One unusual aspect of addresses in Italy, is that street names are often stencilled on the side of buildings, rather than having a metal pole with street signs. It took me awhile to get used to that, but I'm somewhat comfortable with the concept now. If the addresses you're looking for are in a larger city, you could always use Google Street View and "walk" yourself to the address in a virtual sense. That will give you some idea of what the neighborhood looks like. Cheers!

Lin, it's more complicated than you realize. Get this - it varies by city. Florence has parallel numbering for residential and businesses. So you can have a #14 residential and a #14 business on the same street, but in two different locations. Rome uses "horseshoe" numbering. The number 1 starts at one end of the street. Next to it (same side) is 2, then 3, then 4, (all on the same side of the street) until you get to the end of the street (the intersection where the street by that name ends). Let's say it goes up to 118 on that side. Now the numbering hops to the other side with 119 and starts going back in the direction that it started, 120, 121, etc. until it gets to the beginning of the street. Like a horseshoe. But the thing with Roman streets is that you can walk for a mile on what feels like the same street, but it changes names every few blocks. When it changes name, the numbering starts over again! And then there's Venice. The address may or may not tell you what street it's on. It may just tell you what neighborhood it's in.

Grid street plans go back to Roman army camp arrangements, they're not new (a former history major, I can't help it). Many cities use the horseshoe method of street numbering. The colors for residential/business addresses are red and black (don't remember which is which), often in a different typeface as well. Larger cities will have street names mounted on stone plaques way above eye level, but only on one or two corners out of four, and usually only where the street changes its name. In the larger cities, it might be a good idea to invest in a street map from a bookstore (the ones from hotels and those sold at kiosks usually only show major streets and major tourist sites).

Do be sure to use Google Maps. They are usually pretty good at identifying addresses, but you can use Streetview to double check for yourself. It's not uncommon for GM to put you on the correct street but not right in front of the correct address. Fortunately you can zoom in on the address numbers once you're in Streetview. And you can use "My Places" to create city-specific maps for the places you want to see. It's a great planning aid to figure out what order to do things in. Happy travels.

My daughter, who moved to Italy, says that everyone uses coordinates and GPS. I can't wait to check it out myself, but now I'm beginning to see why!

We use a GPS that we take with...all I can say is thank god!!!..you just have to make sure you put the correct address in...We are going again in 2 weeks and would never drive there without it :)

In Florence, the business addresses are in red and the residences are in black. Each is consecutive but both together, they are not. For example, you could go by a buisness with the red address of 6. It's a business. Then, you go by 12, 14, 18......... 28 all black. These are residences. Then, you see a red address of 8 which is the next business on the street. What a hoot!. Also, you will find several intersections in the historical area where each of the four streets entering the intersection has a different name. We saw several of these. The street names are on small signs on the buildings. It's a great experience.