MKay,
I have found this book helpful in understanding the geography of eastern Europe, including presentations of spelling variations. It was created specifically as an aid for Jewish family history, but geography is geography. One limitation is that if a town did not have a significant Jewish population it may not have been included in the book.
"Where Once We Walked - A guide to the Jewish communities destroyed by the Holocaust" (2nd Edition) 2002 - Gary Mokotoff.
You are right about the advantages of Italian genealogical record availability compared to some other countries. There is a saying about the place my ancestors were from (history buffs will know I've jumbled the dates, but you get the gist): You could be born in Poland, go to school in Russia, get married in Ukraine, and die in Belarus, and never leave your home town.
When trying to locate immigrants to the USA my first stop is usually Steve Morse (
https://stevemorse.org/ellis2/ellisgold.html)
but I find that the manifest images at the FamilySearch site are superior to those at the Ellis Island site that Morse links to. Once you have the data it's worth doing the superfluous "search" on FamilySearch for the better manifest images.
Steve Morse's overall website has an incredible wealth of free linkages (including census) and is worth getting familiar with:
https://stevemorse.org
Parker
