Experience with GPS in Italy?

Question

Anyone have any advice/experience with using GPS in Italy? Is it a life-saver? not accurate?

Answer 1

I know several people here who have one and use them sometimes. They are accurate, but it's not hard to get around here without one. It's more a matter of comfort level than being a lifesaver.

I was in a cab once where the driver had two of them. At one point, one of them started telling us to turn around every few seconds. I assume he had set a mid point on one of the two.

Answer 2

I’ve had one for years. I’ve got so used to it that I even use it when I don’t need to. It used to be incorporated in the car, but recently they’ve brought out some  pretty nifty portable ones, that you can take with you and even use in hired cars or on foot (2 hour autonomy on foot). On average they are very precise,  sometimes they err  because they are not updated. They are not as useful as in Germany, where traffic jams are updated  real time and you are rerouted quickly; in Italy it takes longer. You have to be careful about “shortest routes” where they might force you into the narrowest of streets, whereas the “fastest routes”, insist on the Super Motorways (Autostrade), that can be expensive and not always faster. All in all I  feel lost without mine.