Maps
 

Where is a good source for driving maps in italy? We will be picking up our car in Milan & heading down to Siena, then to Florence & then up to Bellagio.

Thanks

Any gas station will have a selection of driving maps.
Before you go, though, visit www.viamichelin.com and type in your city of departure and your destination and click 'go' to get a detailed driving itinerary. Click on 'parameters' to change miles to kilometers, and choose your dates. This can be very handy if there is road work expected; you can see where there might be bottlenecks and delays.

most of the rental agency maps are adequate for all but inner city driving. europecar used to have an outstanding series of maps including major city arteries in one booklet at the counter.

If you would like to buy maps before your trip to plan out some routes, I recommend the Touring Club Italiano maps at a scale of 1:200000. These are available for each region of Italy (Tuscany, Lombardy etc.) and are very detailed, showing the "white roads" and scenic drives. They are available at some of the larger Barnes and Nobles and Borders or can be ordered online at www.thesavvytraveller.com

We actually bought ours at a Tabacchi shop in Florence right b4 we got the car! It was 250000:1 and worked out great, I think it was Michelin.

Before going to Italy, we purchased a Michelan road map, a huge one. Once we got there, we never really used it because the rental car company gave us one (much smaller and easier to handle), and then for city maps, you can get them at your hotel.

I agree with Grinisa...a 1:200,000 map is a big plus.

The other maps may be good enough to get from point to point....but if you want to explore you need a good map.

We found that many of the small towns weren't even listed on the maps provided by the car rental company.

With a detailed map, we were confident enough to get off some the main roads and travel som e incredibly scenic local roads.