Best maps for trip to Italy
 

We will be visiting Rome, Sorrento, Tuscany , Florence, and Venice in April/May, and wondered which maps Fodorites had found to be most helpful. We plan to bus from Rome to Sorrento, pick up a car and drive from Sorrento to Tuscany where we're splitting our time between Cortona and Siena before dropping the car outside of Florence, and train to Florence and to Venice.
We have the maps included with the Fodors, Frommers and Rick Steves guides plus AAA, but wondered if Michelin or any others might be better and/or more helpful. Thanks!

I prefer Michelin and Touring Club maps.

I would also look for small, pocket-sized city maps that do not fold out into a huge total-size map, but have individual pages showing parts of the city. (Is that clear?) I can't offer you a name, because our favorite is an Amex one we got in the 1980's of Rome. I am sure there are plenty out there if you look in a big bookstore or on the Internet. It should have a street index, too!

My favorite maps are the Streetwise Maps.

For getting around Rome & Venice, our favorite is Freytag & Brednt. http://www.freytagberndt.at/rtc-freytagberndt/en_EN/843 We have never gotten lost with these - all the streets are there & named.

We like the paper maps so we can highlite our daily walking paths, & they fold smaller than the plastic ones. We also get the Italian version so the local street signs will match the map names.

They are both big maps. So, I make an 8x11 photocopy of each of our siteseeing district in each town, or I fold the map in such a way as to only have the need to view one small section of the map for the daily siteseeing.

On the photocopies, I highlite the sites & the walking path to take. Helps a lot once we arrive and the 8x11 size is convenient for carrying around.

Have a great trip, Julie

We have used the Michelin Italia -Atlante Stradale e Turistico- spiral map book for the last seven times (we finally broke down and bought a new one last year) It is invaluable in detail for driving. It may be a little expensive, but absolutely worth it. Also we have a GPS as well.