CapriAnniversary

We are leaving for Italy in a few weeks and are taking a Garmin nuvi 770 with us for the first time and will use it in our rental car.

1) Anyone have any comments pro or con with Garmin GPS' maps of Italy? If commenting, are those based on experiences in the past 12 months or longer back than that, with older map versions in Garmin's GPS models?

2) Does anyone know if in Italy one can legally drive with a GPS mounted on the windshield (suction cup device)? I know in 2 or 3 states in the USA, it is illegal to have it on the windshield.

We have had a German friend who 2 years ago used an auto rental supplied GPS in Italy, and found it completely unreliable. We have had a friend in the USA who used a Garmin 660 model in Italy last year, driving in Florence, and swears by it.

We will be taking static maps as a precaution and are planning our routes with the aid of static maps, but, I will tell you that when you start trying to make the notty turns and things that static maps cannot give the detail for, I am hoping Garmin's GPS is the silver bullet that saves the day.

debalyin

It works great....we have the Nuvi 660 and used it in January. I just held it so I do not know about the mounting. The roads are so easy in Italy you will not have a problem.

CapriAnniversary

Cool! Am very happy to hear your positive report. Did you use it for navigating in any urban areas, such as Florence, or other cities where "city canyons" may have buildings that could block finding satellites and cause loss of location? If you were in some cities and had no problems, that's really cool. That's where I'm worried we may get lost on failure to get our location.

In general, where were you using your Garmin in Italy? Thanks, in any event, for your initial reply. It reduces my anxiety.

cybertraveler

Bookmarking...sounds great!

discovery

It's great in urban area, i use to drive a lot around italy for work, i've use it in many cities always well. Mauro Rome

DickM

CapriAnniversary, I've mentioned several times on this forum that we're huge fans of the GPS.. great stress reducer, especially navigating in cities.

Re point #2..you might consider getting a bean bag mount for the dash. Easier to hide evidence of a GPS when you leave the car.

scrb

You can get a beanbag mount for about $40 for most Garmins.

Check Best Buy or Fry's.

I used my 670 in France last year.

Some mountain roads were dicey, barely wide enough for 2 cars and a lot of blind corners.

The initial routings it would give you would give distances as the crow flies. So it would initially indicate a destination as 15 miles from your current location but it would turn out to be about 40 miles.

truenorth

This may sound silly but where do you get the European maps? I don't yet own a GPS but wish to buy one. BestBuy salesman here in Florida looked as if I had 2 heads when I asked for map for Europe.

vlweis

we have the Nuvi 660 and I purchase all the maps for Europe on Amazon. It was not cheap at about $190 US. Its a secure digital card that just plugs in the Nuvi.
Vince

CRV

I have a TomTom 920, and it has maps for North America and Europe pre-installed. The beanbag mount works very well, but the downside will be its weight in your suitcase.

Ackislander

OP asks about successfully using a GPS in Florence.

Do the maps show the restricted no-driving zones for which Florence is famous?

I am enjoying my new Garmin toy but find that it can get you into some very interesting situations, some more stressful than being lost.

CapriAnniversary

Thanks, "Discovery" for the information on functionality in urban areas in Italy.

Good suggestion on the bean bag mount. We will look into this.

Hearing many good things on reliability of GPS in general, there are then the real stories of being told a route that has one driving the wrong way on a one way street--or onto train tracks.

Once we return from Europe, I will try to post a new topic on the forum as to our experience using our Garmin unit. Hopefully, it is a story with a good beginning, middle and end!

Judy

I just used a Garmin in southern France (have to assume that the accuracy of their European maps would be the same for both countries) and was never routed onto a one way street.....actually wondered sometimes why a route was chosen and soon realized that it was to accommodate one way streets.

The only problem we encountered was the voice prompts being phonetic and that would certainly be less of a problem in Italy than France.

We opted just to leave the device on the console and not carry any mounting. On rare occasions we'd need to hold it up for sattelite reception but, if more than the driver in the car, not a big issue.

Enjoy your trip.

Linda74

I have the Tom Tom 920 and plan on using it in Italy two weeks from now...anyone used the TomTom in Italy?

raymokr

Truenorth; All the Garmins that end in "70" come with European maps installed [e.g. 370, 670, 770 ]. This is much cheaper than buying the non-Europe models and purchasing the map seperately.

margo_oz

We used TomTom in Italy last year - and it was brilliant.

Very few problems with it - only once did it try to convince us to turn off an overhead bridge!

Without it, one or other of us would have been dead (probably me - I have absolutely the worst sense of direction in the northern hemisphere - I just cannot believe what the maps tell me! And they all drive on the wrong side of the road)

truenorth

Thanks for the info raymokr. I'll look for a good deal on a x70 series Garmin or a TomTom 920. I used Pharos Ostia GPS software on my PDA in Canada and US and and MS Streets in Europe and both were a disaster and convinced me that I need a dedicated GPS. Is Galileo going to effect all this when operational in EU?

DinPa

My wife has the bean bag mount and loves it. No evidence of a GPS unit in the car. No suction marks on windshield. Very easy to use and they don't move around.
dave

bdjtbenson

I just bought a TomTom 920. I was advised the TomTom pronounces European words better than Garmin. Since the 930 will come out later this month, there are good deals to be had on the 920. I bought mine online and had it in two days. I hope to use it regularly before my next trip so I know how to use it.

My last trip to Italy sold me on a GPS. Almost no streets are labeled in Italy and only about a third of the building (or less) have addresses.

CapriAnniversary

A report on our use of a Garmin 670 (we did not buy the 770) in Italy that answers some questions I raised in this thread before our trip to Italy can be found here:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35135048