Michelin Italy: Tourist and Motoring Atlas (Michelin Tourist and Motoring Atlas : Italy)

If you're really going to rent a car in Italy, well, are you REALLY sure you want to rent a car in ITALY?!? Have you heard of the way Italians drive?! Ok, fine, I won't insist in trying to discourage you from having a white-knuckle, hold-on-to-your-seat, head-scratching, stressful vacation, but the least you can do is be equipped with this road Atlas. The suggestions on places to see according to each map are very good.
Oh, and DO NOT FORGET to request a GPS for your car!!! If the rental company say they don't have it, insist upon getting one.

I hoped that the Michelin Italy Atlas was a good paper (pages), but the pages are very fine (fine pages), not good to travel by car (pratical).

Thank you.

Rick Stevens says the traditional road atlas needs be 1/300,000 or larger scale in order to be useful for guiding drivers on the road. This atlas has the right scale.

I have a GPS navigator (Tomtom GO 720) which works very well in Europe, I almost thought the traditional atlas was no longer necessary. But after two instances occurred to me during my 2-week driving in Europe (June 2008), I am very glad I had brought this atlas with me as a backup to my GPS.

In the first instance, a scenic mountain pass identified by the GPS was closed midway, I must rely on the atlas to reroute. In the second instance, the entire traffic on our side of motorway stopped completely due to a traffic accident ahead. I had to rely on the atlas, ignoring instructions from GPS, and driving through country roads to reach my destination.

The paper and printing quality of the atlas is first class. It's a worthwhile investment. Take it with you even you have a GPS already!

I haven't field tested this atlas yet, but I like it already. Its very light, so it won't be a burden in my carry-on. It has detailed maps of a lot of towns too.

This is our second purchase of the Michelin Italy Atlas as we used the first so much that pages were torn and missing. We find it to be one of our better map guides for traveling in Italy.