I would get a subscription to SkyDemon and add the avioportolano airfield database (compatible with SD).
SkyDemon does a good job with Italian airspace.
I have used SkyDemon flying VFR in Italy several years in a row from Alpine regions to Puglia, Calabria and Sicily (and everywhere in between) without problems & will do so again this weekend, flying from Austria (LOAN) to Rome Urbe (LIRU) with a likely stop on Lido.
I often use the DFS charts as my paper back up. They’re fine. There are other charts too. Portoroz generally has them in stock if you stop there.
Avioportolano is great for the smaller grass airfields, with lots of info about fuel, accommodation, phone numbers, pictures, etc, but it would never occur to me to use them for airspace.
…maybe worth adding that DFS/Eisenschmidt has just also released 1:500 000 charts for Italy, in the (for German pilots at least) well known “DFS style”.
Here is the link to the Northern Italy one. I haven’t had a chance to look at one yet, though…
It does seem to me that is lacks most of the aviosuperfici/campi di volo, which would make it pointless, but I will check with the company producing these.
Official paper charts for Italy are these shown here made by the Italian Airforce
… which, one has to say, are the worst and most expensive pieces of waste ever produced.
The office that is responible for publishing these charts usually doesn‘t even manage to produce these charts on time each year…
Amongst VFR pilots, the Avioportolano charts have taken over the role of the „standard“ VFR charts (Jeppesen had that position until 2013), at least amongst those who still use paper charts.
Official paper charts for Italy are these shown here made by the Italian Airforce:
https://www.flyaway-mi.it/carte-icao/3216-carte-aeronautiche-icao-edizione-2019.html
PS: just seen that Peter Mundy has already posted (I get my stuff from him)
Yes, it has.
After all, in 2015, Italy has dropped these silly „VFR sectors“ and redesigned their TMAs to a more ICAO-compliant standard (separate threads on here), thus making it easier for chart publishers to depict the TMAs correctly.
So, AFAIK, these charts now depict all controlled airspace correctly. Still, for myself, it left s bitter taste and I never used these charts. But then I generally don‘t use/need paper charts anymore. I use and recommend Skydemon for Italy (although SD also used to have their share of „troubles“ with Italy in the past).
@boscomantico wrote:
Yes, the TMAs are now depicted, BUT: they made the same mistake like others before and didn’t include the “graphical-only” information from the AIP regarding the famous VFR sectors!! I am quite shocked.
…..
Sorry to say, but: DON’T BUY OR USE THESE MAPS!
Has this been fixed since 2014?
Only today did I have a chance to have a closer look at the new (2014) Avioportolano maps.
Yes, the TMAs are now depicted, BUT: they made the same mistake like others before and didn’t include the “graphical-only” information from the AIP regarding the famous VFR sectors!! I am quite shocked.
Those maps are therefore the same as the proprietary ANP ones and the same as SD used to be until a couple of months ago (i.e. the basic outline of the TMA is present, but all VFR sectors are completely missing!).
Sorry to say, but: DON’T BUY OR USE THESE MAPS!
So, we’re still at point zero: if you want paper charts for Italy, there is nothing decent on the market. We’ll see what the upcoming Caratbossy Northern Italy map will be like…
SkyDemon told me their product should correctly depict Italian airspace by now.
However, from what I read here, the only electronic product which is fully up to date is PocketFMS.
Historically I would expect Navbox to also be current, but it is not a good GPS moving map product.
I would not buy a paper map for any purpose other than to scan it and
Flying with an actual paper map is too much work because how do you position yourself on the map (in a hurry)? Traditionally it would be done by having a GPS which has some (usually primitive) airspace and other shapes visible on it, and you used those to locate yourself. That is how most people use/used the Garmin 296/496 products – because the airspace data on them is crap. But having the “printed” map directly running on the GPS is way better.
This one (“LI-1”). Looks like they copied the nomenclature from Jeppesen… 
I guess you are referring to the changes in the Venice area. That was however not the only substantial change since January 2013 (when the last paper Jepps were published). The Catania (Sicily) area has also changed substantially after Comiso (LICB) airport opened in May 2013. Plus, there have obviously been several more minor changes elsewhere in the meantime.
It’s really no good flying VFR with outdated paper charts. I now recommend using paper charts only for general planning and as a backup and use a good electronic product for serious planning and flying (with chart data updated to the very latest AIRAC cycle). Many countries aren’t like Germany, where major airspace changes are usually only introduced at the March cycle…
