Ideally, it will be downloaded to the phone and include France & Italy.
What do folk recommend.

Navigon Western Europe @ £43 or TomTom Western Europe @ £53.

Can not go wrong with either really.

Co pilot is very good.

Free ones:

NavFree & skobbler: navfrees interface is better, but skobblers routing seems more reliable. Both are built on OpenStreetMap[/URL] data so it depends how good the map is around your area – though at least you can fix it map problems yourself.

Also try CycleStreets or Bike Hub for when you’re on the bike.

Or MotionX GPS when you want GPS style navigation (i.e. by plotting waypoints)

G, what’s CycleStreets like? Better worse than the BikeHub effort?

think you can’t really go wrong with co-pilot or tomtom – i’ve seen both in action and they work great.

I’ve got ndrive, which is great, but you can’t get it anymore as apparently they were paying for the maps! Explains why the app was a tenner…

G, what’s CycleStreets like? Better worse than the BikeHub effort?

Both seem okay around here, depends on how good the OpenCycleMap coverage is.
Seem more useful for route planning than on the go nav, but I’ve not really used them in anger yet.