For our first trip to Italy in September, we arrived for our 2 week sojourn in Tuscany with 2 Touring Club Italiano Toscana maps - one for the front seat navigator, one for the back seat navigator so we could discuss various routes as we directed our driver. We've traveled in Provence for several years and this method has worked well ( 2 navigators with the same map) and I highly recommend the TCI maps. (Have already bought our Umbria versions for next year.)
Happy travels, Linda
Posts: 242 | Location: Brevard, NC, USA | Registered: 21 January 2003
Pauline, I knew that was there, and couldn't find it to save my life. SlowTrav is now an honorary Tentacle-Baby. The place I thought for sure it would be was "Italy - Planning", by the way.
I think the Touring Club maps are very good for planning car journeys and they are attractive too. Yes, they are rather big when folded out, but I have found it quite possible to fold them quite small, so that the bit you want is accessible. The Michelin maps are less attractive to own, but also perfectly adequate for touring.
These maps are not so good for hiking, as they do not show footpaths, and tracks, or the smallest settlements. For this you need the series known as "Carta Touristica e dei Sentiere", which are published by the Base Cartografica istituto Geografico Militare - Firenze. These show everything down to footpaths, cart tracks and mule tracks and have contours, so you can see how steep a route is.
The only trouble is I have not seen them on sale outside of Italy.
Ciao!
Ricardo
Posts: 2745 | Location: Lightwater Surrey U K | Registered: 30 March 2003
The hiking maps are available from Omnimap.com, the book i am talking about is a touring club map but much more convient to turn the page,then to fold unfold,refold etc.Also devides the area in quadrants so easy to locate map page.RR
Posts: 6465 | Location: Culver City, CA, USA | Registered: 08 November 2002
As mentioned elsewhere, I scan the particular map sections that will be needed and then save the scans. The scans are opened with a photo editor. These are then resized and touched up a bit. I then print these sections on 11 X 14 inkjet photo paper. So that method gives me enlarged sections of a Regional 200,000:1 map. The prints are usually better than the maps that were used for the scanning. I do the same for city and Provincial maps except that I print several copies of the same sections of these on good plain paper, which can be folded, pocketed and discarded at the end of the day as there are others that are fresh for the next day(s).
Peter
Posts: 1348 | Location: Essex Fells, NJ and Longboat Key, Florida | Registered: 21 July 2002
And if you're walking with it and/or intend to use it a lot, and size allows, laminating it is a good idea: rain, wear, plus you can even sketch on it and wipe it clean.
Pecepe,That is what the touring club map book does for you,has about 60 pages that are about 11x14 and are numbered,so adjacent areas are one page away,we got ours at the autogrill.RR
Posts: 6465 | Location: Culver City, CA, USA | Registered: 08 November 2002
I have the touring guide book but even those pages are too small, the book is heavy to lug around and the town or area that I am interested in always seems to be on the fold. That includes the Michelin map book of Italy. The section that I would be scanning and printing is more than twice the size of the page in TCI book which makes it much easier to use by a long shot.
Peter
Posts: 1348 | Location: Essex Fells, NJ and Longboat Key, Florida | Registered: 21 July 2002
I agree, those road map books are heavy. Our trip at Christmas is the first time in years when we will not be driving - so we do not have to lug those road atlases along!
In England we had a book of hiking maps - they were laminated separate pages and came with a plastic carrier you put around your neck. Perfect for walking in the rain and damp.
I don't think there is much that compares with the Italina Touring Club maps. The solution to the large fold-out filling the entire windshield is to get the complere edition in book format. There are 3 large sized books:Nord Centro & Sud. They are really stunning and very easy to use. Yes, a bit heavy and not for hiking (I didn't see that as a requirement), bu using the scanner tecnique works well. I very nice Christmas gift, indeed. Here is just one place that has them: Complete Set
Thanks everyone for the great information! I think I'll ask for the Touring Club Italiano Road Map complete set now and pick-up the fold-out maps in Italy.
Posts: 116 | Location: Seattle, WA | Registered: 26 October 2003
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