The rick steves italy map is very detailed and shows close-ups of popular areas. The paper it is printed on is water resistant which makes it really sturdy and durable.

One finds as good or better maps for free in those brochure bins that seem to be everywhere when one travels. Just buy his book.

This map is pretty much useless. As a stand alone map to use while planning a trip to italy, it's useless. The map (at ~$8) is nearly worthless. I have a aaa-map from 1984 that is better than 3 times this size.

The map tries to do too much, showing the mainland and the larger islands on the same sheet. This makes the size of the mainland very small. Even the vatican is only partially included on the edge of the covered area.