Sure, my comment about Italian drivers is just my opinion, and I'm sure there are those who would disagree, especially so many Italians! :-) However, I came to my opinion not from just one visit to Italy but after having been there on multiple occasions both as a tourist and for work—and the fact that I had lived and worked 'next door' in Austria for some while.

Your comment made me think that perhaps I was overcritical so I did a quick search. Other than for some info about what tourists need to drive in Italy, this was the first hit in the list to my query: https://www.thelocal.it/20150326/why-are-italians-such-crazy.... Seems that just a few others agree with me (Italians included).

"Traveling impromptu, particularly if you do not speak functionally the local language is asking for trouble…"

In total agreement, one often experiences language difficulties especially so outside major tourist centers and larger cities. Even native speakers can get out of their depth the moment they cross their border (as I show below).

Avoiding two-star rated hotels/pensions and lower is also to be avoided (often I'd arrive at these hotels and be greeted by someone who spoke perfect English only to find that when that person finished his/her shift then there was no one else who could (I've some funny anecdotes about such encounters for another time). Any arrangements made with the English-speaker were often lost and confusion often ensued. Such confusion isn't necessarily confined to countries where one doesn't speak the local lingo, it can also occur when the natives speak English‡ by default!

Trouble is that for the average tourist Europe has too many languages for comfort (reckon percentage-wise not that many are linguists sporting six or more languages). I've some French and German, and they're very useful at times but of very little help outside Western Europe—Hungary and Serbia for instance (despite the fact that quite a few Hungarians speak German).

What's more the difficulties with language can be very localized. I recall one instance in Alsace when a group of us were in a restaurant and we tried to order meals in German only to be greeted with something gruff to the effect 'no comprehend', this was despite the fact that we had a native German speaker among us who eventually tried to help—Alsace being Alsace, we only brought him out as the big guns when all else failed, however it was to no useful effect (as we eventually ate elsewhere). Moments later when they thought we were out of listening range we could hear their conversions in German. Very strange, presumably if we'd initially tried to order in French then everything would have been OK.

Another striking instance was when I was in Menton in the south of France (Menton† is a border town between France and Italy with the Italian town Ventimiglia† immediately on the other side of the border). I was with my French aunt who normally resides in Paris and who not only spoke perfect French but who also always enunciated her words clearly. She had absolutely no problem with language when visiting the local markets in Menton, nor with conducting any another business in the town however she was totally flummoxed when in Ventimiglia's markets—essentially gestures were her only effective means of communication. Incidentally, Menton and Ventimiglia are so close to each other that one can easily walk between the two as is common practice; moreover, crossing the border which, essentially, is the only thing that separates the two towns, was so simple that to do was a non-event:

† https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menton. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventimiglia,_Italy

Sometimes, unexpectedly, the opposite happens. In the early days of when I was living in Vienna a Greenpeace volunteer knocked at my apartment and asked for a donation. He rattled off his request so quickly that I requested him to repeat a part of it. Without so much as even a pregnant pause he instantly switched mid sentence into English and did so with absolute fluency (how I envy people like that).

"...almost anywhere, and as well pickpockets are common in many large cities all over <...>some relatives of mine have been pickpocketed BOTH in London and in Barcelona"

I'm not disagreeing, the reason I picked out those two instances was that the pickpockets in question were so overt about their aim that even the most novice traveler couldn't mistake their intentions (they worked on the principle that it didn't matter if you knew their intentions or not as, given their numbers, they'd have no trouble getting away). As mentioned, I found other places to be OK, in fact very safe, for instance, I traveled to work every day on Vienna's crowded U-Bahn and I never gave a second's thought about being pick-pocketed (and I never was).

"I have been refused accomodation (duly booked in advance, BTW) in Munich in the Oktoberfest period (due to some sort of overbooking, or mismanagement of cancellations, not really an issue as I was traveling by car and I managed to find a hotel only a few km outside Munich)"

Stuff-ups happen, and I'm not surprised it happened during Oktoberfest (you must have masochist tendencies to have been in Munich at that time). ;-)

"...in three different occasions someone managed to throw up on me (yikes!), once on a bus in Berlin, once in a train in the UK and once on a Qantas flight to Australia."

The most polite thing I can say to that is that with incidents one and two, luck wasn't on your side. Incident three, you have only yourself to blame for traveling on that airline.

My only experience that's vaguely similar happened to me in Manhattan when I was on my way to an important meeting. Whilst waiting at a pedestrian crossing for the lights to change at the intersection of one of the avenues and a cross street (forgotten which ones) a pigeon flying overhead shat on my head and shoulders.

An inconvenient bomb out of the blue to say the least.

P.S.: I really don't like traveling much, I avoid it if I can.

___

‡ At a certain hotel in London's Russell Square that will rename nameless, I made definite arrangements the night before I was to book out to collect an important fax that I was expecting to arrive overnight (I had a very early flight to NY and time was tight). Morning duly arrived and the area around the checkout counter was beginning to fill. When it was my turn to check out I asked checkout clerk serving me (one of three on duty if I recall) for my fax which I knew had arrived as I could see that it was still on the fax machine behind the checkout counter (its printout was of the roll type and my fax was still attached to the roll).

The clerk immediately responded that "the fax operator won't be in until 10AM and I'd have to wait until then", I politely responded that the fax was already on the machine behind him and that I'd already made arrangements the previous evening to collect it first thing the morning but it was to no avail, he simply repeated the exact same mantra again. A heated argument ensued much to the amusement and chagrin of others waiting (I was holding up the checkout line) but the clerk still wouldn't budge. I then immediately jumped over the counter tore the fax off the machine and jumped back again. Clerk: "I'm calling the police", "OK, best of luck—and I'll then accuse you of stealing my goods and I'll charge the hotel for me missing my flight." Cheers and applause from the 'audience' ensued. Yeah, there are some right bastards in this world.