Cycling UK Forum

We have just returned from 3 weeks cycling in North West Italy - exceptional! The only problem we had was purchasing maps of our preferred scale. We could buy 1:200,000 which did not provide sufficient detail, or 1:25,000 topographical maps best suited to mountaineers and with too much detail. I was told that the Touring Club Italiano had stopped producing their 1:50,000 and 1:100,000 series. Does anyone know where you can obtain maps of this scale?

Very best regards.

The Map Shop have some 1:100,000 and 1:50,000 maps of Italy, though the coverage is a bit patchy...

I have just purchased a 1:50,000 Kompass map of Lake Garda from Stamfords - they seem to have a big range in stock and sent it by return of post. It includes all the cycle paths and footpaths clearly marked and the key includes english, with english place descriptions on the reverse and a panoramamic view as well.All on waterproof paper. Excellent value and good service - If they haven't got what you want I expect they can get it.

More likely, if they haven't got what you want, it doesn't exist. The trouble is that the official survey of Italy is terribly out of date, or as it says there, patchy and poorly mapped, and this limits the ability of commercial map companies to make good maps. Typically map sales are only large enough for them to do their own surveying in a few favoured areas.I have been in Italy and verified the non-existence of any accurate paper map of places I have been in. You can, for example, examine Google Maps and see that the "map" overlay often omits roads you can see on the satellite photo.

These days, sometimes GPS is better. Because there are now vast sales of GPS mapping, far exceeding the sales of paper maps, the GPS companies can afford to go to the trouble of driving the entire length of the road system with a vehicle to record the roads. I know that they did that in Portugal, where 60% of the road system was found to be unmapped. Italy probably wasn't quite that bad. Also since the Italian economy has been stagnant for over a decade, probably there hasn't been recent road-building on the scale of Portugal.

iviehoff is spot on I think and his/hers explanation about the official mapping probably explains why all the maps I have seen of Sardinia were pretty much equally appalling. There too the best map proved to be German! For a fair while that didn't seem to be available to the Sards - someone I know, tipped off by me, bought one when they were in Berlin.

Openstreetmaps is very limited in Sardinia but in those areas where you do find it it is already significantly better than any map you can buy.

I'd also agree with the take on Stamfords.

Interesting factoid about Portugal - sometimes wondered whether it might be good for a cycle tour - that factoid makes it seem like relatively unexplored territory on our doorstep.

Ive cycled quite a few times in Italy, Sardinia and Portugal the once - i used the bog standard offerings from Michelin - I cant remember cycling on or discovering any roads that did not exist

psmiffy wrote:Ive cycled quite a few times in Italy, Sardinia and Portugal the once - i used the bog standard offerings from Michelin - I cant remember cycling on or discovering any roads that did not exist

By that I assume you mean that you don't remember cycling on any roads that weren't on your map.

There are very definitely loads of cyclable roads in Sardinia that are not on maps - I've cycled them (always risky as you never know if you are going to come to a dead-end/an impassable spot), looked at them from other roads when on my bike, looked at them out of car windows. Navigating is always a gamble/a matter of trying to read the mind of the map-maker. There must be thousands of these roads.

My experience is that the Touring Club Italiano 1:200k maps are the ones to go for as a general-purpose map - IME they are better than Michelin because Michelin tend to de-emphasise the type of strada provinciale that are most useful to cyclists. They are also printed on very light weight polythene which means they are very durable.

There are times when more detailed maps ate useful - especially where the road network is densest. In most of northern Italy the best and most readily available 50k maps are from Kompass - who cover the Alps and large chunks right down into Tuscany. In the nort east the major alternative are the Tabacco maps - they do do 50k maps although their main market is hikers. They also do a 100k map of Friuli Venezia Giulia and a really good 200k map of the Dolomites.

If you are planning to spend much time in Italy then IMO it's worth investing in a Garmin gps plus City Navigator and/or their Italy Topo map. For smartphones Citymaps2Go by Ulmon has pretty good maps covering the whole of Italy.

Agree with andymiller about the Touring Club Italiano 1:200,000

The maps aren't super-great but probably the best you will get and as he says they are tough/kind of plasticised.

Sold in sheets for individual Italian regions at something between 6 and 8 euros a pop but unless anyone was sticking to either Sicily or Sardinia, a bad bet economically, especially when you consider some regions like the coastal strip that is Liguria.

Folks would probably be better with this which does the whole country.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Italy-Road-Atla ... 82&sr=8-19

and I'm pretty sure is the same mappping plus has city plans/ Probably about 20 euros in Italy.

The pages aren't that big and don't cover a very big area but you could probably get by with it, just taking the pages you need.

I'd also use it with a decent GPS like the Etrex20 - you can check out the current state of the free openstreetmaps mapping for your chosen area at:

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx

Portland wrote:Agree with andymiller about the Touring Club Italiano 1:200,000

The maps aren't super-great but probably the best you will get and as he says they are tough/kind of plasticised.

Sold in sheets for individual Italian regions at something between 6 and 8 euros a pop but unless anyone was sticking to either Sicily or Sardinia, a bad bet economically, especially when you consider some regions like the coastal strip that is Liguria.

That rather misrepresents the position:

- the map for the north east covers the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, and Trentino and a decent chunk of the Sud-Tiröl and parts of Lombardia and Emilia-Romagna;

- the Lombardia map covers a big chunk of Piemonte;

- the Abruzzo-Molise map also covers most of Lazio, and big chunks of Umbria;

- the Umbria and Le Marche map covers a big chunk of Toscana as well;

- the Toscana map includes a big chunk of Emilia-Romagna - ie giving you the whole of the Appenines.

I don't have my map of Liguria here but the diagram on the back of tmy other maps shows that it covers generous chunks of Emilia-Romagna and Piemonte as well.

I have the TCI Atlante for the whole of Italy and it's excellent value - and certainly for somebody thinking about a tour in Italy it's definitely worth investing in, for research and routeplanning at home, but for use on the road has three major disadvantages:

- it weighs 1100 grams compared with 100g for an individual map;

- it's relatively usable for an east-west trip but a pain if you want to go north south - you can't beat the convenience of being able to open up a map and see a big chunk of territory;

- it's just not as weatherproof or durable as the maps.

Interesting reply Andy.

But I wasn't suggesting that folks take the whole book with them.

The pages of the book seem pretty tough plasticised to me.

Suppose it depends how extensive someone's trip is and how many of the individual maps they might need.

all the best anyway - I get the feeling you know Italy very well as a cyclist - all of my cycling in Italy has been in Sardinia.

In response to OP, not 1: 100,000, but this is the map series I took the Sardinia map from - 1: 200,000. I only know the Sardinia map.

http://www.reise-know-how.de/landkarte- ... cturer_id=

Better than TCI, I'd say, but not by a lot as still hampered by the limited data availability.

One thing I do like about it (assume others are the same) is the simple shading system it uses to show altitude. Using this and common sense looking at mapped features like rivers you can often have a passably decent idea of how much climbing you might have to do.

There was another map I was thinking of as well - will try and find the info.

Maps from these folks - some at 1: 150,000.

from Freytag & Berndt.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lombardy-Freize ... 69&sr=8-17

Again I only know the Sardinia one.

A really nice map. It does however have a serious drawback for a cycletourist. It's massive, a pig to open out even inside.

Hi,

I have just booked my flight into Milan and departing from Palermo in the Summer and now in the process of sorting out the maps for ctcling the length of Italy.

I have cycled Spain numerous times and found the Michelin Regional maps 1:400,000 to just about be OK but what i do like it is has campsites on them even though the scale is a little large.

I cycled Sardinia with the Michelin 1:200,000 map in 2010 which was more detailed but lacked info of any campsites on the map which was a major problem. It meant drawing them all on before departure which took ages!!

Now, for mainland Italy i could buy 6 Michelin 1:200,000 maps for our journey and draw on the sites OR buy 4 Regional 1:400,000 maps and at the sake of a bit of detail have the campsites on. I guess i could also buy a Road atlas and take out the pages needed!

Could anyone tell advise me whether the mainland 1:200,000 maps have campsites on or suggest an alternative as really don't fancy plotting campsites on 6 maps!!

Kind regards

As a fairly recent convert to the things, I'd seriously consider also taking a GPS if you haven't already got one.

Something like the Etrex 20.

If you buy one now and work extra hard you might understand it/be able to get the best out of it by the time you leave.

You could enter the details of campsites gleaned from online research onto that.

Good luck with the trip.

Which month are you going?