Maps of Florence/Rome

Rome is kind of easy to get lost in. I don't find the RS Rome maps to be adequate. I prefer the Rough Guide Map. It's lightly laminated and has tons of information on it, including a great guide to street names. The font is very tiny, so be forewarned.

Barb, I have found the small folding Artwise and Streetwise maps at Barnes $ Noble useful for trip planning (finding where the hotel is located exactly) which comes in handy when decinding where to stay. It also has proved invaluable when directing our taxi where to go. Ricks maps are good for us tourists for relative location, but the taxi drivers don't seem to think much of them. In summary, they are great for things not on Rick's maps and for pre-trip planning, but we usually find Rick's maps are what we use once on the ground and oriented. Have a great time!

Barb, I normally just use the cheap Maps provided by the hotels, and have found those quite adequate most of the time. They're often on a tear-off pad at the front desk, and if you wear out one copy, just ask for another. They're free so you can't beat the price! If I need more specific directions, I use a portable GPS unit in "pedestrian" mode. Cheers!

Thanks everyone! I had nothing to do this morning, so I ran down to Books-A-Million and found a StreetWise Map for $8.51 for Rome. I discovered my hotel is located on a tiny street near Campo di Fiori. This was a recommendation from a relative who has spent a good amount of time in Rome. I think this map will be helpful. I can show it to the taxi driver. If nothing else, I can wheel my luggage from Campo di Fiori. It's a good quality map and can be easily carried in a daypack.
Thanks for your feedback! The Rick Steve's Community is great!

Barb, I wanted to add that I do use the RS Maps on occasion, as they're greatly simplified which makes it easy to find hotels and other points that are shown. I used to enlarge them in a photo copier and used those copies to find my hotel when arriving in new towns. I haven't used that method for a couple of years, as I rely more on a GPS now. Good to hear that you have a Map. Cheers!

I love the Streetwise maps! If I don't plan to keep the map or if the city is relatively compact, I use the map provided by the TI or hotel. Florence is very compact and is not someplace you would easily get lost, compared to Rome or Venice.

We found a Rough Guide map for each city, scale 1:4500, at a Hastings book store. We marked our hotels and sights we wanted to find on each city map. Best maps we've found, waterproof but flexible and quite detailed. On the reverse are detailed closeups of various city sections. We used them extensively and the street names were easy to read. Amazon has them at a lofty price but we paid less than $10 each at the local bookstore. We are seniors so we each had a Walmart compass, handy upon exiting museums etc and knowing which way to walk to the next destination on which street.

Be careful about ordering maps through Amazon. For some reason they often have ridiculously high prices (e.g. $90). Call around to local travel stores to find what you want. The great thing with that approach is you can look at several different ones and pick the one you like the most.

I vote for a combo of the streetwise and free hotel maps. The additional thing about the RS maps is the markings are in a light gray and hard to read for some of us. The other maps have more contrast and are easier to see.

In Florence, Rick's maps in the Italy guidebook was perfect for me. It was easy to get around for our daytrip using that. In Rome out hotel had a tear away map that was a lot better then Rick's map. I used that everyday and had no trouble getting around. I did purchase a 3 euro bus map to know which buses ran down the streets. We took a couple of buses around rome and this was useful.

Cheap hotel maps work for me. It helps to write on them and circle things you want to remember. Ahead of time studying Google maps online helped to have an overall idea of a city. Carrying a small compass to get oriented while standing on the corner looking at the map was very helpful. Maybe I need a new gps but walking in cities with tall buildings and winding streets I found it somewhat useless. For driving it is the only way to go.

A couple of years ago my husband and I, along with our son and daughter-in-law, were walking toward the Forum when a group of (I think) midwestern folks in front of the Sacred Area exclaimed "Oh, they have a map!" We set them on the right way and wandered on wondering how in heaven anyone would walk around a strange city in a foreign country without a map. Bizarre. Each of us had one in case we got separated.