Michelin Map Italy: Sicilia 365 (Michelin Regional Maps)

 (2 customer reviews)

We use Michelin maps whenever we go to Europe, and there's no doubt in my mind that this one has every possible road in Sicily included in it. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the Sicilians are not the best at posting road signs to help you track your course, so your map needs to pull double duty as both travel planner and neolithic GPS. Fortunately, the Michelin map is so detailed that you can pretty much solve any "where the hell are we?" problem in relatively short order.

PS: GO to Sicily! Incredible! Avoid driving in Palermo unless you have a deathwish, but make Selinunte and Siracusa must-see stops on your journey. And that that Michelin map!

Do you love maps for their own beauty and logicality? If you don't, if you prefer your cell-phone/ dashboard GPS, stop reading now! You're plainly of a different generation, or else you've acquired some incidental hamster DNA. But don't berate me, call me a Luddite, etc.! My wife already performs that chore whenever we switch seats, driver to passenger. I snarl at her when she can't scan a map and "read" our route at a glance. She snarls at me when I can't keep track of the little green hamster crawling along its narrow tube on the iPad or 'Droid.

Maps have always been an art form as much as a geopolitical tool. Yes, these Michelin maps are almost wall-size, and yes, it can be awkward to fold and refold them while riding "shotgun" in a cinquecento. But they tell you so much! Even when they are only road-network lines, they're loaded with imagery. This map of Sicily, for instance, reveals much of the economy and demography of the island in a single scan. It's an empty...Read more