Hello everyone,

I am going to Italy this March, and was wondering if anyone has ever used GPS there, if so... what brand is good, etc... I am thinking about buying one, to take over for walking around purposes. Any advice, comments would be appreciated. Thanks, Joel

My I suggest a search on this site? I think this question is pretty well asked every other day. I'd suggest a Garmin unit, but there are so darn many it's almost impossible to say what's best. If you want a good unit for a reasonable price check-out the Nuvi 370 series. They can be had for under $200. They have N. America and Europe maps pre-loaded onto them.

If you want the latest with all the bells and whistles the Nuvi 775t sounds awesome - it includes both European and North American maps. If you'll be doing a lot of Autobahn driving this baby has "lane assist" which could be very helpful in getting you on to the right lane when your exit or just a split on the road comes up.

Tom-tom and Garmin seem to be the most popular brands that our visitors show up with. GPS can be very useful in the big cities, but always make sure that you have some good maps as back-up.I find Garmin annoying in that you can't put in a town or a small village and ask for the centre, you need to put in the address (but if you put Via Roma or Pzza Garibaldi, that usually works!)

2 tips: make sure that your maps are updated with the latest SW (you can get new data chips) as sometimes roads are changing a lot. And although it sounds like an oxymoron, learn to program and work the thing in advance, like all electronic gadgets they can be very useful when they work and an absolute pain if you have to spend hours fiddling with the thing.

I just came back from Italy (as well as Croatia and Germany) and had a wonderful experience with a GPS there. Garmin is unequivocally the most well-known, long-standing and prolific GPS manufacturer in the world with sterling customer service. You will definitely not go wrong with a Garmin -- they are simply the best.

As far as model, while I own 3 or 4 different ones myself, we purchased the before-mentioned Garmin Nuvi 370. It is perfect: it contains both North American and European maps already installed, is very compact to carry in your luggage or any pocket(!), announces street names, has Bluetooth (for hands-free calling here in the US), MP3, etc. Although it is chock full of features it is priced very low (the earlier poster must have meant to say under $300) perhaps because Garmin has officially discontinued it (they make more money selling European map sets individually instead of bundled in the GPS, so get them while they are still available). It also includes the SiRF-III chip-set instead of the older 12-channel receiver so gives you faster satellite locks and recalculation times. Today (11/3/08) on Amazon it is going for $244.

Not only did it do spectacularly well on the roads, but it worked on ferries we took on the Dalmatian Coast, trains we took through Italy and Croatia, AND.... in the pedestrian mode, we actually navigated through the streets of VENICE! Swear! Those horribly but lovely jumbled streets was not a problem for the Nuvi 370 (primarily due to the SiRF-III receiver inside). You do not need a wide(r) screen; this has all you need.

Have FUN on your trip and navigate to a gelato shop for us!!

I have the Garmin 370 it works great better if your driving rather than walking, just MHO. One thing I did not like it did not take into account use of vaporetto in Venice it always gave some god awful round about ways to get from point A to B. I took it to use there because I know Venice fairly well and since I plan to drive around Australia in part in the outback next year I wanted to be on top of using it correctly. You also need to buy the add on travel kit unless you know the address of a restaurant or shop you want to go to.You have to use a little common sense and not totally depend on it. I think its a worthwhile purchase, paid $250.00 in August for a new one on ebay.