I second all this. Especially the suggestion to put your bags in a luggage locker - I’d use the one at the station.
Ah! So the unseasonal rain is your fault! You sent your weather ahead so you wouldn’t get homesick! glares
Another thing to watch out for is scammers - they’ll make some excuse to stop you and talk (“are you English? American?”), then give you some bullshit story about needing money, or try to sell you some bit of tat - anything to get you to stop and put your hand in your pocket.
Once you’ve stopped, it’s hard to get away unscathed - and anything could happen - including grab and run or a fast-change routine. If anyone approaches and tries to talk to you, just keep walking. Be prepared to tell them to fuck off.
It’s a major cruise ship line port of call so there are many people who are only there for a day before they have to leave. From a pickpockets perspective its great, new marks everyday and they have to leave town right away or miss out on their vacation. The La Rambla is basically the street that leads to the cruise ships, so it is packed with bars, restaurants, an open market, street vendors, painters, street performers and a flea market on the weekends. Then throw in a few shell game hustlers, three card Monte games, pick pockets and the occasional prostitute and you have a very festive and active atmosphere. It’s great.
The street performers are all gone now and the whole atmosphere is different. 
It depends a lot on when you go there, but the street performers are most definitely not gone.
They were last Summer (August). They were banned.
When I was there in November 2012, they had the human statue people and that was it. (Not sure if there was more than that.)
Catalans pronounce it Barcelona, if you really want to fit in.
I’ve heard you should also beware of “Beware of Pickpocket” signs. I forget where it was, but I’ve read of one municipality that ended up taking them down, because they actually helped the pickpockets. People would see the sign and automatically touch the pocket where their wallet was just to make sure it was still there, and the thieves were watching to see which pocket was touched.
I didn’t have any problems when I was in Italy. Then again, I tend to be pretty paranoid anyway.
I’ve lived in New York for the past ten years. That’s not a problem.
Just wanted to pop back in here, now that we’ve returned from our trip, and report, happily, that we experienced not a whiff of difficulty in Barcelona, or anywhere in Spain/France that we visited. The wife and I used common sense, left the passports back at the hotel along with most of our other valuable stuff, and my backpack was looped around at least one limb at all times. 
Barcelona was fantastic; in our 2 days there we saw the Sagrada Familia, the Batllo House (also designed by Gaudi), and took a trip to hike around Montserrat. We also consumed an unhealthy quantity of tapas and churros y chocolate, wandered around La Boqueria, and ate at a seafood restaurant at Barceloneta.
Muy bueno!
Good to hear you enjoyed the experience and it was incident free. It’s a great city to visit, some of the architecture is completely unique. I stayed in Barcelona for six weeks (in 2007) and theft was rife; most of the people I met were robbed, some violently (I needed a trip to the ER) but most just had bags, wallets, phones and camera picked when they weren’t careful.
I always carry just enough money for the day and a cheap phone when I’m out so they didn’t get much, but they really didn’t need to hurl me to the ground and then pin me there while they went through my pockets. The few euros and a cheapo phone really wasn’t worth the torn ligaments in my knee. I still use the same precautions as it’s the only city I’ve been robbed in, I guess there were some real desperados out that night :rolleyes:
Pick-pocketing is not robbery. Thievery, yes. Robbery, no.
Some Canadian girls I hooked up with for a while when I was backpacking about in Spain had a standard tactic for this, which I believe they said came from a TV skitshow. It amused them no end.
They would simply reply “I’m sorry, we speak no English”. If the scammer persisted, they would continue to explain, with increasing eloquence and in more and more detail (in English), with totally straight and very serious and apologetic faces, how they were really very sorry and would like to speak to them but that unfortunately they couldn’t speak English.
It left behind them some bemused scammers.
Chocolate con churros and tapas are in unhealthy quantities only if you still have room for more 
Glad you enjoyed the trip.