Folding Maps of Italy
Why Carry a Map?
Maps are an important part of planning and participating in your Italian holiday. Sometimes you need a road map to help navigate your way across the winding Tuscan roads, or through the narrow streets of Rome. Other times you look for a map just to help you pinpoint the location of a restaurant or hotel.
Maps do what a guide book cannot. Maps help you learn about the geography of the area ... get an overall picture of the layout of a region, province or city before you get there.
It is true that many rental cars come with GPS devices these days. While a GPS device can get you from point A to point B with little trouble (most of the time) a map still gives you a better scope. Besides when you have figured out that the GPS device cannot do what it states it can it's too late! Maps will always have value.
Map Scale
Map scale can be a confusing subject. Maps are generally considered to be 'large scale' or 'small scale'. Normally the wider the scope of the map, the smaller the scale. For example, a map of the country of Italy has a wide scope. It has to cover all the way from the Alps in the north to the sunny island of Sicily. Therefore it has to be a small scale map.
On the contrary, a Cinque Terre map covering a small distance of only a few miles would be a large scale map.
That is a very quick and general explanation of map scale but it should help clarify the difference.
Maps For Your Trip
So you've decided you need some maps. Which maps are right for you? That depends on your trip.
Most people visit the cities of Rome, Florence and Venice. They will move from city to city by train or by tour bus but will do very little venturing beyond the main centers of the city. These type of tourists need city maps. There are a variety to choose from but one folding map and one 'Streetwise'-type map for each city will do the trick. The folding map can be used before the trip to mark your hotel, sightseeing points and restaurant locations. The 'Streetwise' map is small and laminated. It folds down to fit in a pocket or purse but has remarkable detail.
Others will venture around the countryside in addition to seeing the main cities. Most major cities are connected by major highways and good quality roads. Therefore a regional map will be sufficient. You will have to figure out what regions you will be visiting but the regional map will provide decent detail (they are a smaller scale) and have most roads on them. Normally they fold out and become quite large. Don't rely on the maps distributed by your car rental firm. These are normally just a country map and don't show all the roads.
Another type of visitor is a 'slow traveler'. They will stay in a villa or an apartment in the countryside and never really move around much. These type of travelers would best benefit from a provincial map. In Italy there are 20 regions. Each region is divided into a few provinces. The provincial maps are a large scale (normally between 1:100,000 and 1:150,000). The provincial maps are perfect when used to try and find your villa or when you want to get an idea of what is in the area of your villa.
Maps are specific and the right one can be invaluable. Our friends at TrekTools.com have a selection of 272 maps of Italy. Armed with the information above, you should be able to find and purchase the right mix of maps to help make your trip to Italy the best it can be. TrekTools.com, offers over 250 regional, provincial, city and tourist maps of varying sizes and scales. All the maps are useful to help navigate the Italy by car or on foot. These are professionally produced maps by reputable companies such as Michelin, Touring Club Italianono and Litografia Artistica Cartografia.
Italian City Maps
City maps can be a great value when you are trying to find points of interest, navigate your way from point A to point B, or just get a general overview of the city. Sometimes it's not necessary to get a map in advance for the major cities, but for the less important cities there is no guarantee you will be able to find one on the spot.
City map scales vary from 1:7500 to 1:20,000 but they will always have good street data and most have points of interest marked right on them.
Find a complete list of Italian City Maps at TrekTools.com.
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Italian Tourist Maps
Tourist maps are the only non-political maps TrekTools.com offers. These maps cover the tourist area instead of provincial or regional borders. These maps are often a superior scale (as little as 1:25,000) and provide good detail of paths and some topographical information. It is important to note though that these maps are not specific topographical maps or hiking maps.
See a complete listing of Italian Tourist Maps to see if one is right for you.
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Italian Provincial Maps
Every Italian region has several localized areas called provinces. Often when you rent a villa and stay for a week or so time is spent in one particular province instead of moving around from city to city.
Italian Provincial maps are a greater scale (between 1:100,000 and 1:150,000) so they provide great detail for gravel roads, small churches and show towns not found on other smaller scale maps. You might need more of them to cover a larger area but they are also easier to handle as their unfolded size is more managable when you are driving.
There are 104 Italian provinces. Find the complete list of Italian Provincial maps at TrekTools.com
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Italian Regional Maps
Italy has 20 regions. These are similar to states in the USA. The Italian regional names are what most people are most familiar. Regions such as Tuscany, Sicily and Calabria top the popularity list.
Because regions cover a larger area the maps covering them are a smaller scale. Scales from 1:200,000 to 1:250,000 provide good detail for using even the less important roads but unfolded may not be as convenient. Regional maps are great for pre-trip planning when you can lay the map out on a table and see the entire region in one picture.
TrekTools.com offers two product lines for regional maps. The first is from Touring Club Italianono. These are better scale and show more detail, but they are larger. The variety from Litografia Artistica Cartografia (LAC) is also very good though a slightly smaller scale. We use and recommend either very highly. See the complete list of Italian Regional Maps.
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Italian Super-Regional Maps and Atlases
For those covering larger amounts of ground in a smaller amount of time you might find the line of maps from Michelin most useful. Michelin offers 4 maps covering 4 or 5 regions each. The scale is not good enough to depend on for countryside driving (1:400,000)but for highway driving and major regional highways these maps can be useful. The 4 maps offered are:
Michelin 561 - Northwest Italy
Covers the regions of Piemonte, Lombardia, Valle d'Aosta and Liguria and offers small inset maps of the cities of Torino, Milan, and Genova.
Michelin 562 - Northeast Italy
Covers the regions of Trentino Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Emilia Romagna and offers small inset maps of the cities of Venice, Verona, and Bologna.
Michelin 563 - Central Italy
Covers the regions of Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, Lazio and Abruzzo as well as San Marino and offers small inset maps of the cities of Florence and Rome.
Michelin 564 - Southern Italy
Covers the regions of Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria and offers small inset maps of the cities of Naples and Bari.
If you want the coverage but also want better detail consider buying an atlas. Touring Club Italianono offers 3 regional atlases which are the same scale as regional maps above, but they are bound in a nice book form. The book is about 15"x11" but it provides good quality maps easy for a navigator to manage in the car.
TCI Atlas - North
The Touring Club Italiano's Northern Italy Road Atlas covers the Italian regions of Liguria, Piemonte, Valle d'Aosta, Lombardia, Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia, and Emilia Romagna.
The 234 page atlas includes the regions denoted above in 1:200,000 scale, plus the areas of Turin (Torino), Milano (Milan), Northwest Milan, Northeast Milan, Varese, Como/Lecco, Bergamo, Verona, Padova, Venezia (Venice), Trieste, Genova, and Bologna in a special section with 1:80,000 scale. There are also 55 city maps and an index of places.
TCI Atlas - Central
The Touring Club Italiano's Central Italy Road Atlas covers the Italian regions of Tuscany (Toscana), Umbria, Marche, Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise and Sardegna.
The 182 page atlas includes the regions denoted above in 1:200,000 scale, plus the areas of Pisa/Lucca, Pistoia/Prato, Firenze (Florence), Livorno, Perugia, Ancona, Pescara/Chieti, Roma (Rome), Colli Albani, and Cagliari in a special section with 1:80,000 scale. There are also 45 city maps and an index of places.
TCI Atlas - South
The Touring Club Italiano's Southern Italy Road Atlas covers the Italian regions of Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily.
The 162 page atlas includes the regions denoted above in 1:200,000 scale, plus the areas of Caserta, Napoli (Naples), the Sorrento Penisula, Bari, Palermo, Reggio di Calabria/Messina, and Catania in a special section with 1:80,000 scale. There are also 47 city maps and an index of places.
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