[Geocoding] How Nominatim works and where are seas?

[Štefan Kiss]

  Hello everybody!

  My name is Stefan and I am from Slovakia. I am a blind user of computer and for the work with PC I am using a screenreader which cann me to read a text from screen. I cann work with text, e-mail, webpages, sound but not with pictures and maps. But I am interested in geography and I would like to find some possibility for reading maps.
  I found a Nominatim service and I thought that it is a chance for me. I am living in Slovakia (48 lat and 18 lon) and I sent to Nominatim a sequence of queries where lat was 48 and lon was step by step decremented from 18 to 0. It was great for me to know what about countryes are under my Slovakia. I think - this is a way for blinds - how they cann read a maps and to create some image about the world. 
  But now I hawe 2 questions to you. 

1. On the webpage of Nominatim service is written:

"...The following examples use Nominatim to reverse geocode. This is the process where you begin with a geographic coordinate and the nearest known address is returned."

  Please, what it means? When I send to Nominatim a coordinates 40 18 
(http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/reverse?format=xml&lat=40&lon=18&zoom=18)
and I get result Apulia, Italia, means it that I am really in Italia or the result is only the nearest known address and my location 40 18 dont must be in Italia?

2. When I sent to Nominatim a sequence of queries and I went from 48 18 down to 10 18, I saw, that the seas are missed. I know that under Europe is Adriatic sea but in Nominatim results I go from Italia to Admas Tisal and Libia. (Admas and Tisal are tagget with tag address29 without other tags about Country or city).

  Please, cann you recommend me how specify the query when I would like to have a really information about place which is appointed with lat and  lon coordinates? Or if Nominatim is not the best way for me, do you know some service which cann I use for reverse geolocation? I dont need roads, houses, buildings or points. I would like browse the maps through gps coordinates and to know in which country or city or on which sea I am. Is it so unrealistically?

    Thanks

      Stefan from Slovakia
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/geocoding/attachments/20150707/4ab63f98/attachment.html>