Are there any web sites which offer free maps of italy? We will be doing some touring by car mainly around the Tuscany area after our bike trip and would like to get a look at the driving situation before we leave home.
Also, has anyone used the Michelin driving map for Italy? I found it useful in Germany last year, but not so good in a few other countries we have traveled to.
Thanks
I liked the Touring Club of Italy's map of Toscana with a 1 to 200,000 scale for driving. However when I got to Italy the Tourist Offices often had maps with a smaller (?) scale (the second number is smaller than 200,000) that was better for driving in a particular area. I ordered the map online because my local Barnes and Noble didn't carry it in store.
TAB
Thank you for your reply. I will continue to do some research and see what other free sources of maps I can find.
When driving I like having detailed, high resolution maps at hand. (I drive on obscure roads). I have not generally found these online, in advance. However, on arrival in the area, they are usually readily available, even in different resolutions. I just returned with a couple such maps in hand. I have now tried to locate them on line and have no luck. You might try a major Italian government tourism office in US, perhaps the one nearest you. On line michelin is the best but of course that is only online. good luck
Let me edit my previous...by online micheline, I mean looking at the map on the computer screen. Often, the printed maps available locally are better yet.
You can set up your entire trip on michelin.com and then zoom into all the details you want and print it out. It is the map.
Thank you for your suggestion Don, my husband and I didn't know there was such a feature. It will surely help when navigating some of the smaller towns in the Tuscany area.
Sherry, I agree.......I took one of my compasses, and there were times that I really needed it, especially when you got in the midlle of some of the small towns, and the turn you needed was not marked, or when you were traveling on a "ring road" (Rome, Lecce)
Next time......GPS! $400 will eliminate a lot of "where in the heck are we now?", and "Oops, I missed that turn........".
Via Michelin.com is the best resource I have found. I used them extensively in planning our trip to the Dordogne (Very detailed) down to Carcassonne, into Arles, and Toulouse. Also helped to get us out of Paris alive.
We used a Michelin mapbook for our trip a couple of weeks ago, and it just does not have enough detail. When we were on the major side roads it did not list the road number, even though these route numbers were prominently displayed on rhe roads. That was the biggest problem. It worked fine for the freeways.
I would heartily reccomend that you buy a portable GPS before you leave. This was our 4th trip to Italy, and I sure wish I had one this time! Go look at the Tom Tom's.....they have the maps of Europe already loaded. We had an option of renting a GPS with our rental car, but I was under the impression that they would be in Italian, so I did not rent one.
My navigator (my wife) and I both agree that we will have our own GPS for our next foray in Europe!
We use Michelin maps when we travel in Italy and find them very good. We too have noticed that some roads on the maps don't have numbers, but when we find the roads and drive on them, we never see any numbers. I don't know if they have numbers.
This past March, we got turned around, I'm not a great navigator even with a map and compass, and there was an "un-numbered" road on the map that led to where we wanted to go so we took it. Turns out it was a "strada bianca" or gravel road. It was a beautiful drive, our car made it fine, and we got to the main road just as shown on the map. Since then, we now recognize it as a road that is often included in photos of Tuscany. It is near Pienza and Montechiello. I recite this both as an endorsement of the Michelin map because it correctly showed the gravel road and as an example that sometimes going a little astray can be fun.
By the way, we also ALWAYS take a compass with us.
Yes, I found these maps on the Venere site. We were able to zoom down to local roads...printed out detailed maps from Rome to Sorrento and into the mountains to locate the villages where my grandparents were born.
Thank you so much for the wonderful idea of taking a compass with us it will be the first thing we pack. As much as we have driven all over the world we have never thought to take a compass and it surely could have helped on some of the Indian roads we have driven through.
I have ordered my Michelin map and also thank you for that idea.
Safe travels wherever your next vacation takes you.
DiDi
We like the city maps of Streetwise.com for driving you might want more detail.
Thanks for the streetwise website.
DiDi
Via Michelin is wonderful. We just got back from Tuscany and I wish I had printed more maps before we left, but the ones I did print were awesome. Also, don't underestimate the bus system in the Chianti area. It is wonderful. We stayed in Greve and when we went in to Florence opted to take the bus and park our rental car in Greve and hop the bus...it was a breeze to do.
Thank you for the tip on printing the via Michelin maps, we will definitely check it out and get the printer going.
DiDi
