Has anyone used this type of GPS in Europe with Italian maps. Are there any problems?

excellent unit that is easy to use, highly recommended. i bought one because i could not be guaranteed to get a GPS in my rental cars.

How does that unit compare to a 10x14" map display on a laptop that you can also plug into a PDA?

That's what I've used all over Europe with no problem (except for the satellite shadow issue common to every GPS).

You can get a brand new one on eBay for considerably less than $100.

We used the new Nuvi Garmin in Provence last September and it was too slow to be practical. Not sure why it works better in the US.

We just got a TomTom GO 910 for using in Europe. I don't know when you're going or need to make a decision but I'll be there at the beginning of Apr. and could comment better then. It does get great reviews. Time will tell.

Well. Starfish, are you back and what do you think?

I don't know if this is still current or not but I'm back. Tom Tom worked very well with a few exceptions - for whatever reason, wanting to send us in the wrong direction a couple of times, taking us down the occasional road meant for donkey carts or even pedestrians, etc. but if we didn't go where it wanted us to, it would just recalculate and send us another route. We quickly learned that using a map is also a good idea but it doesn't have to be really detailed. Unfortunately an update for our Tom Tom was available after we purchased it but we couldn't get it before we left. We were also travelling by campervan so not all the routes were really great for that type of vehicle. For most cars the routes would be fine. We used it in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Austria with no major problems.