A UK man had a disastrous trip after misspelling 'Rome' in his GPS took him 1600 kilometres away from his intended destination.

The unnamed 81-year-old was driving from Newcastle to Rome to see the Pope, but he accidentally typed 'Rom', a small town in west Germany, into his GPS, the Daily Mail reports.

To make matters worse, when he arrived in Rom, he forgot to put the handbrake on his car, which then rolled into a sign.

Emergency services were called and they found he was more than 1600km from where he was supposed to be, the Daily Mail reports.

"The man was on a pilgrimage," police spokesperson Monika Treutler said. "He was on his way to Rome, where he was hoping to visit the Pope."

Treutler said when the man couldn't see any Roman landmarks, he realised something wasn't right.

Luckily, despite going slightly off course, he only ended up about two hours behind schedule.

Newshub.