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Road Maps for Driving in Italy and Route Planning

Pauline Kenny

You need good maps for driving in Italy. The Michelin maps, available in most travel bookstores, do not have enough detail (they are good for an overall picture of the area and for initial planning but you need more detailed maps for driving).

This page lists the best maps for driving. For a complete list of maps available for Italy, see Trip Planning - Maps.

Buy Italy Maps Online
	TrekTools.com: Over 250 different maps of Italy: regional, provincial, city streets, etc. Get the detailed maps before you leave on your trip to help with your trip planning.

Touring Club Italiano - Large Scale Regional Maps

Folding maps, 1:200,000 scale. Good for planning and driving.

The Touring Club Italiano (TCI) regional maps are the best maps for trip planning and for driving. These have enough detail to give you the information you need. Use them when planning, to locate your vacation rentals and see what the area is like. They have enough detail for driving in Italy.

TCI makes a map for each region in Italy. Here are some of the most popular regions (from north to south). The maps are shown with the regions in English followed by Italian in italic.

TrekTools.com also sells the LAC regional maps at a scale of 1:250,000. These are also very good detail and good for driving or planning.

Click on the map name below to order or go to TrekTools.com - Folding Maps - TCI Regional Maps.

TCI Maps for Northern Italy

Trentino Alto Adige

Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia

Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta (Piemonte e Valle d'Aosta)

Lombardy (Lombardia)

Liguria

TCI Maps for Southern Italy

Campania and Basilicata

Calabria

Puglia

Sicily

TCI Maps for Central Italy

Emilia Romagna

Tuscany (Toscana)

Umbria and the Marches (Umbria e Marche)

Lazio

Abruzzo and Molise

Sardinia

Touring Club Italiano - Large Scale Road Atlas

Road Atlas, 1:200,000 scale (same scale as the folding maps). Good for planning and driving. These are my favorite maps and I find the road atlas format to be the easiest to use when driving.

The TCI regional maps are also published as a road atlas called Atlante Stradale d'Italia. It comes in three volumes: North (Nord); Central (Centro) - includes Tuscany, Umbria, Rome; and South (Sud). The maps are exactly the same as the folding regional maps listed below and are easy to read, have great color to differentiate the types of roads and have the detail you will need.

In Italy, pick them up at the Autogrill (rest stops) on the Autostrada (highway). They are also carried in bookshops in Italy (18 each). Or purchase them before your trip from TrekTools.com (links below).

TCI-Atlante Stradale d'Italia (3 volume set): Combination of the three TCI regional Italy atlases (North, Central, South). 1:200,000 scale.

TCI-Nord Atlante Stradale d'Italia: Northern Italy, 1:200,000 scale.

TCI-Centro Atlante Stradale d'Italia: Central Italy, includes Tuscany, Umbria, Rome, 1:200,000 scale.

TCI-Sud Atlante Stradale d'Italia: Southern Italy, 1:200,000 scale.

TCI-Atlante Stradale e Turistico: Atlas of the entire country (spiral bound), 1:225,000 scale (slightly smaller scale than others in this series).

Route Mapping Web Sites

There are several web sites where you can enter your route and they give you driving directions and times.

I only use these to get driving times - I have NEVER managed to follow the directions. The directions refer to street names and highway numbers, which you will never find. In Italy, navigate following town destination signs. See my notes on Navigating.

www.maporama.com: Maporama world map, very good for Europe
www.viamichelin.com: Michelin Europe route planner, very good for Europe
www.mapquest.com: Mapquest route planner
www.mappy.com: Route planner
www.map24.de: Map 24 route planner for Europe