My husband and I will be staying in Montalcino in May and renting a car to visit different towns in Tuscany. I wanted to buy some maps before the trip so that I can get my "bearings" and have some directions in mind before our arrival. What maps do you experienced drivers recommend? Please keep in mind that this is our first time to the area and we are already a little nervous about driving in a foreign country... Thanks!

I have always had great success with the maps published by Touring Club Italiano for each region of Italy. I beleive their scale is 1:200,000 and they are detailed and easy to read. They are available at most larger bookstores. You need "Toscana".

Driving in Tuscany is probably easier than in most other areas of Italy--no hairpin curves, steep cliffs, etc. There are a lot of small roads. Many are detailed on the Michelin map of central Italy but if you can get it an even better map is Italian Touring Company or something like that. If you can't get it in this country (US) you can pick one up on the autostrada once you get there. In the meantime the Michelin maps are good enough to show you many/most connections among the small towns. Enjoy.

Hello Buddy, The Michelin #430 is adequate for most at a scale of 400k to 1. If you want to see real detail of every road in Tuscany--as I do--then get the Touring Club Italiano map of Toscana at 200k to 1. You can buy both at any good map shop. I get them online at the Globe Corner Book Store.<BR>Do not worry about the driving. Just stay out of the big cities.

Agree with Grinisia. We used the Italian Touring Club map while driving all over Tuscany. We, too, were first time visitors and drivers. The map at the scale suggested helped us immensely.<BR>We tried a variety of others and often found we were enormously confused. We were enormously confused most of the time we were driving in Tuscany especially on the small roads in Chianti but the touring club map helped us get from point A to point B with relative ease.

We also use the Michelin maps, #430 for that area. We definitely find it detailed enough for our use. I like the &quot;green roads,&quot; which is the color that Michelin uses to indicate roads that are especially scenic. I also like to review maps before a trip; I don't have a great sense of direction, so it helps me to have a mental image of the map in my head, in addition to having the real one in front of me!

Thanks so much for the recommenations. I'll take a look at both maps!

Hi Buddy,<BR><BR>You got great advice on maps but as for driving, I wrote some pages over at http://slowtrav.com about driving ( http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/road_signs/index.htm is the direct link ) and then follow the links on the right of the page for info on the road signs here (they are not the same as in other places).<BR><BR>HTH

When I was at Borders and was looking for a map of Southern France, I noticed there were two maps put out by Michelin- a red one and a yellow one. The Yellow one is much better. If that is the case for Toscano, the yellow map is the one to buy.

We always use viamichelin.com for free directions and maps: what a great source! Try and you won't be disappointed.<BR>

France is not Italy--the color scheme is different--you want the orange 430.