RLA

Attention world travelers! Geographically speaking, just how big are the notorious countries, regions, and cities; Italy, Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Umbria, Amalfi Coast, France, Paris, different parts of the UK, London, and any other notables? Generally speaking, compared to well-known U.S. cities (especially Dallas/Fort Worth Texas since I know it the best). I'm not looking for numbers as I can painstakingly look them up and compare. I'm sorry if this inquiry is too self-serving. I would welcome a website or book reference too.

I have looked up several maps, but I have had a hard time finding a good online map i.e. simple but complete with the commonly visited cities, towns, & villages at a glance. The ones I find have some but not other notables. I know the Michelin maps in the bookstore are recommended when the time comes to go, but I'm not that far yet.

Thanks in advance!

bobthenavigator

Go to initaly.com and spend about 2 hours and then come back. Also, spend some time at viamichelin.com for maps and distances. I often compare Italy to California, but Italy is a bit smaller.

Robdaddy

And France is approximately equivalent in size to Texas

RLA

Thanks, Bob. I do like the initaly site and found their map to be a simple one like I am seeking, however, it seemed some of the cities often talked about here were not plotted. I'll look again. Glanced at the michelin site as well, but not for long. It looks very versatile. I started simple and hit a snag so probably jumped off too quickly. I should spend more time with it. Thanks for the CA/Italy analogy. That's a good one as they are so similarly shaped. I am a sequential learner so do best starting with a broad overview and working down to the finite details.

In all the reading, my imagination waffles back and forth regarding size of a place. I sometimes picture something as being huge that turns out to be small and vice-versa. It was somewhat frustrating to me touring New England from this aspect. Being from Texas, some of those states were smaller than I imagined! Then, it took longer than I imagined getting around. I'm used to boring interstates and estimating all drive times at 70 mph.

My DH surprised me with a trip here with the help of a travel agent. Two of the B&B's were farther apart than he anticipated (although the agent had pointed realistically how far in between). We fullfilled our intention of enjoying the leisurely journey in between B&B's, but one particular stretch accelerated to breakneck pace as it got dark. After dark it was surprisingly easy to make wrong turns or not turn when necessary due to lack of sinage in some small towns. It was fun after all, but whew!

I am always shocked and amused to learn that places I have heard about most of my life are as small as they are. Ex: Connecticut being only a couple of hours north to south and not much more east to west. My sister just moved there and she giggled a lot when the "how far to" questions came up. (She too, is a lifelong Texas resident).
Sorry to ramble on. Thanks for responding to my question.

Statia

RLA, coming from Texas myself, I can relate to your reference of drives across most other states being so much quicker than driving across the state that we are used to.

If it's of any help, the cities of Florence and Venice are both very easily walkable. I was very surprised, after much studying of my maps of both cities before our trip, that they were both much smaller than I had anticipated. We always got from point A to point B very quickly. Blocks were much shorter than they had appeared on the maps.

Paris and London, on the other hand, are much larger and I would equate them much closer to the size of Dallas.