We will be driving in Tuscany in July and have read that a very good map is needed to navigate the country roads. Any suggestions? We will be in Siena, Grosetto, Florence area for sure, flying in/out of Rome.
I like the Touring Club Italiano regional maps for the big picture and planning. Stick one on the wall during your planning phases is fun, too.
I also like tha province maps (LAC Carta della Provincia) for Siena, Firenze Prato, etc. They ar handy, have a much smaller scale and are much more detailed. These are also easily obtainable at your destination from local newsstands and bookstores if you run out of time to order them beforehand.
I don't know what the Tuscan province maps are like in the LAC series, but the Pugliese ones are very dated. My Brindisi one, bought last year, shows tha major roads as they were about 15 years ago.
Of course, you'd mostly be using these maps for driving on the back roads, which are often unchanged - until they start crossing a newly completed bypass road.
We've certainly found that the 1:200,000 TCI Atlante Stradale, which Robert links to, shows enough detail for any roads that I'd want to drive down. We only bought the LAC Brindisi to give us a bit more detail for cycle trips.
Jonathan
Posts: 2945 | Location: Stroud, UK | Registered: 18 November 2001
Thanks for the info and the link, which I had seen already, but didn't know which map would work best for us. I think we'll try the alante stradele to start with. Is it best to purchase online or can you get these at major booksellars, etc?