"OK, to sum up, terrible in Italy:"

No it isn't. As I said Italy's a lovely place. It's just that more can go wrong there than in other Western European countries unless one's adequately forewarned.

"1) to find no place to sleep if not booked in advance the day of a major sport event"

In any city there can be problems with accommodation during any major event (sporting or otherwise) but from my experience things are more intense and or more complicated in Italy. I've been in other cities during major sporting events, Paris and Munich for example, and had no trouble getting accommodation at the last moment - but I've experienced the problem twice in Italy (albeit the conditions of each instance being somewhat different to each other).

"2) no really, do not try going in a city when there is a major football match without having booked some accomodation"

That's probably good advice anywhere. However, having lived in Europe, I've stayed in other non-Italian cities during football matches not having realized that a match was taking place until late into the event. Accommodation was easily available.

"3) if you really insist on going to a city when there is a football match arrive early"

That makes sense whether there's a match on or not. I don't know how much traveling you've done, but my experience is that it's often not possible to arrive early, same goes for being unable to book in advance (especially so if one's does a lot of city hopping, which has been my situation for work). Often things just don't go to plan for many reasons.

That said, I've never been caught out without any accommodation regardless of circumstance. Even that instance mentioned above in Rome I finally sorted out and managed to get accommodation (you'll note, I didn't say what eventually transpired (what actually did is much more likely to happen in Italy than elsewhere in Western Europe)).

The only other time I've come really close to having difficulty with last-minute accommodation was in Vienna (one time I arrived there unexpectedly several hours later than I did in Rome (around midnight) without any prebooked accommodation, that too was also solved after some effort.

"4) do not travel (in the event of a football match) by train"

Makes sense anywhere but generally Italy is somewhat less organized than say Germany is.

"5) beware of picpockets"

The only country/place where I've experienced overt trouble of this kind in Western Europe is in Italy and in Amsterdam railway terminus (no other place in the Netherlands has ever been a problem). Clearly, there are other places that I could mention where I reckon one could easily get into trouble if one wasn't careful but I never have (as always, I follow the rules I've mentioned). Even in Rome I was OK (and I was well aware of what was happening at the time they tried to scam me).

The only time I've had trouble was in Vienna (normally an extremely safe city, I know, I lived there for quite some time) and what happened was my fault (this wasn't the time when I was living there). What happened was that I arrived after traveling half way around the world and was really dead tired. I got into my hotel room, shut the door put my stuff down everywhere and had a quick rest. Trouble was I fell asleep and I'd not locked the hotel door (it didn't have a door that locked automatically).

While I was asleep someone entered my room and stole my wallet but nothing else was taken (they could have just as easily stolen my laptop and camera but they didn't). The loss was highly inconvenient as my credit cards were now gone and I'd not yet even had time to have an imprint from one registered at the front desk (as I said, Vienna is a trusting place, the comment from the desk was 'do all that stuff after you get settled'). Not having a credit card nor any cash, paying the hotel bill was then a potential problem.

What happened next was that I immediately cancelled all credit cards. Two days later the desk contacted me and handed me my wallet back. When I asked how they came by it, they said that several minutes earlier another guest found it just by the entrance of the hotel's front door and handed it in. All my now-defunct cards were still there so was everything else, driver's license etc, all except the cash—that being some $60 or so USD and about the equivalent $20 USD in Austrian Schillings (it was in the days before the Euro). There's about 13 to 14 Schillings to a Euro, so luckily my loss was pretty trivial.

"7) you shouldn't go bare footed"

Surprising many do! Especially so anglophone tourists on holiday. (Same goes for dress sense, once I was in Harrods in London with a group of friends, one decided to wear his skimpy beach shorts (which he also wore everywhere else across the UK) and he was promptly chucked out of the store at very great speed (he wouldn't take our advice to the contrary and that included his Mrs who'd told him earlier that he wouldn't get past the front door looking like that).

"#1 to #5 and #7 are (IMHO) little more than common sense and apply to most if not all countries."

True, but from my expedience Italy is significantly different to other countries in Western Europe, Eastern Europe is a different matter altogether, some countries there make Italy look like a model citizen.

"<...> though it probably applies to a number of other not-perfect countries, like Austria and Germany."

You're skating on thin ice here, what gives to the idea that Austria and Germany are 'not-perfect'? No country is perfect but those two are an absolute model when compared to some others I could name (which I won't do out of deference).