GPS in Italy

Judy, Buy a GARMIN here, buy a Europe chip, and you're all ready to go. When you get back you will a GPS for US travel, and you can use the chip when you return to Europe. Total cost should be under $250.00 or better if you find a good deal on the GPS. The chips are around $100, maybe a little less.

Also, buy the chip through GARMIN. Got burned once buying a cheap one on E Bay.

Judy, On our last trip we borrowed a GPS from a friend and paid to load the Europe maps on it. This was cheaper than renting the GPS would have been. Now both our friend and we have access to a GPS with Europe maps and we won't need to pay a cent for GPS on our trip this fall.

We previously purchased a Garmin Nuvi with European maps here in the U.S. and drove all around France. It worked great. I've just updated the maps to 2014 (free) and I'm now programming it for my wife and daughter's upcoming trip to Italy. They will be renting a car for touring Tuscany and Umbria. Original cost was about $250 and this second use will share to cost over two trips to Europe. So far so good.

Get a Garmin here and buy the map chip and learn how to use it before you go. The last thing you want to do is learn how to use a new device starting out in Europe. The portable unit has the advantage that you park your car it to be HOME on the GPS, wander all over a city and not have to worry about finding where you parked the car ... just fire up the GPS, punch HOME and Ms. Garmn will tell you how to get there.

get a TomTom or Garmin with preloaded European maps and you won't have to worry about it. Amazon will have all of the models that you need.

We got a Garmin Nuvi with Europe maps on Amazon and practiced with it before our trip to France. We saved the addresses of our hotels, museums, etc. into favorites so all we had to do was punch in where we wanted to travel and off we went. We also punched the little auto icon on the GPS screen which marked the entrance to the rental return lot. That saved the driveway entrance to make the return very easy. WE also had a Michelin road map of Normandy since sometimes the GPS directs you to leave a nice highway and take a cross country dirt road which might be 2 miles shorter than the expressway. Stay on the expressway.

Thank you all for your advice. I just went out and got a Garmin Nuvi with Europe and North American maps for 100.00. With free s. From London Drugs here in Canada. (Big Reputable Canadian Firm) Great sale. Now I to get to play with it before I go. Good advise about the spelling of my destinations. I will ck all names here..

Judy, I'd also suggest buying a GPS before leaving home, so that you can familiarize yourself with the operation and features. I've been using an older Garmin Nüvi for both driving and walking for several years, and it's worked well so far. Not all models come with European maps. I'd have to check to determine which of the current models have the maps. You might find it helpful to stop by your local Future Shop, Best Buy or London Drugs to have a look at the various models. Good luck and happy travels!

George has made some excellent suggestions. I only wish we had known to do all of them before our trip in 2012 (lol). It seems to me that in 13 or 14 visits to Italy we've experienced most of the problems his advice will help you avoid, like not being able to find the car return entrance or being led onto shorter but horrible roads rather than a longer, but quicker ride on the autostrada. One more suggestion. We ran into the problem of the gps not being able to find some places because of spelling variations in names. If you input destinations before your trip, you'll be alerted and can check on viamichelin for directions.

Save your destinations as favourites. Then you only have a few places to pick when navigating on the fly. And always sense check the route with a map.