Christine

Any suggestions for who makes the best maps for touring Venice and Rome (NOT by car - I guess walking maps). I read alot of reviews on amazon.com and ordered 2 but I don't think they look that great. I'd like to have the advantage of having a great map to minimize time spent being lost while sightseeing. Also - any suggested guide books for restaurants? We are pretty muchall set for hotels. Thanks!

Capo

Hi Christine. I normally buy Michelin maps for European cities but, for Rome, I preferred the map that came with the Fodors Citypack Guide to Rome because it had a nice detailed map of the city center.

elaine

Hi Christine<BR>My favorite restaurant guide for Venice can be found on line at<BR>timeout.com, along with a little yellow book that I bought before my recent last trip called <BR>"Time for Food Venice", published by Thomas Cook, available on Amazon. Fodor's books on Rome and Venice also have many good listings.<BR>Maps: For Venice, my favorite is<BR>"Streetwise Venice", it's foldable, legible, laminated, and pocket-sized.<BR>For Rome, I tried both Insight and Streetwise and they didn't have enough detail for me, some small streets I was looking for weren't labeled. Those are good for getting a city-wide orientation, though. <BR>What I used for detail, and it was excellent, was Michelin's Roma Tascabile <BR>a little spiral book with smaller sections of Rome on each page. Amazon has that one too.<BR>

Janice

Best maps - laminated StreetWise maps which fold up to about 3x8.5 inches (fit into a jacket pocket) and are nearly indestructible. I own about 15 of them, for every city I visit, and the Paris one has been used by lots of different people - probably 2 dozen different trips, and looks new. Love those things....

Capo

P.S. I also always make a couple photocopies of whatever city map I buy and use colored markers to customize it, highlighting sights and certain streets.

ellen

During my recent visit to Rome, I found that the usual maps of Rome did not include all of the tiny vicole and other small passages, on which you may find restaurants and other attractions. I had two regular maps with me -- good for getting the big picture, but ended up buying the small spiral bound mapbook of the city that is available at most newstands or tobacco shops. <BR><BR>With regard to restaurant guides, I highly recommend the Gambero Rosso book for Rome that is available at amazon.com. It is in English but written by Italians. It has brief descriptions of restaurants and has lists divided by area of the city. It also has useful sections about wine bars, snack bar type places, and tells you where to go to buy food related accessories.

Mary

For food we found "Cheap Eats in Italy" fantastic - it covers Rome & Venice - not only cheap eats, but 'big nights' out too. As for the map get an Insight map for Venice - (we found it to be more detailed than the Streetwise ones) It's laminated etc and even the locals said it was the best they'd seen. Buy both before you go as they're not available there (well at least not in Venice)

Doug Weller

For Rome, the spiral bound Michelin map, but you'll also need a bus map which you get get from a local newsagents.

richard j vicek

Good afternoon, Christine<BR>The Venice tourist Agency which is located out the left far end of the<BR>Pza S. Marco, hours?? offer a Pianta di Venezia, which is a very good map for<BR>walking in Venice and best, free.<BR>Richard of LaGrange Park, Il..