Italian town Baunei, Sardinia is very popular among tourists who used to use Google Maps to explore the picturesque vicinities. The problem is the application doesn’t work properly, directing tourists down impassable roads and onto rugged hiking trails. The Local Italy reports that town bans using that app.
Town Mayor Salvatore Corrias offered to ban Google maps application in Baunei to avoid another rescue operation. The point is visitors follow the suggestions of Google Maps which, “on our roads, are often misleading”. After too many guests got lost locally while using the app, the local authorities offered to use paper maps.
Town Baunei, in the Ogliastra area of Sardinia, always was a very picturesque place, tourists like to explore the vicinities and old streets. However, the local emergency services too often come to rescue lost people and their cars, bikes.
Several hikers have reportedly gone missing and “many” cars have become stuck in the impassable narrow roads of the Supramonte area after following directions from the app.
“Too many sedans and small cars get stuck on impassable paths, sometimes even off-road vehicles too,” Baunei Mayor Salvatore Corrias told the Ansa news agency. “All this because you follow the suggestions of Google Maps which, on our roads, are often misleading,”
Baunei rescuers saved 144 tourists in 2018 only
Last year alone, 144 people eere were rescued by emergency services in Baunei. In 2019, local authorities have placed signs near roads and paths saying “Do not follow the directions of Google Maps”.
The most recent and brightest example of Google Maps’ inability is two tourists in a Porsche who ended up stuck on a narrow mountain defile. The high number of rescues in remote areas prove costly for the emergency services and local authorities, the mayor said.
Baunei is located in a wild and mountainous part of the province of Nauro, north-eastern Sardinia, which is famous for its incredible white sandy beaches, beloved by tourists from Italy and abroad.
“The old paper maps are better”, mayor Corrias said, “or better still, use an expert local guide from our area.”
Another Google Maps’ failure was registered in Venice where several tourists still cause chaos each year by attempting to drive alongside the canals.
