Second this. How crazy the driving is depends a LOT on where in Italy you are driving. Did a big Italy trip some years ago and rented a car. Started more in the north (Milan), then Florence, then Rome. Milan was a little hectic, but not unreasonable. Kind of didn’t do much driving in Florence, but getting in and out wasn’t too bad.
The autostrade (sp ?) - the italian equivalent to the autobahn - was reasonable EXCEPT when you were in the left lane and not up to full warp factor 7 speed…and someone behind you wanted to do warp factor 8. Serious tailgating (like not being able to see the grill in the rear view mirror) at 100+ mph is nerve racking.
But when we got to Rome, a WHOLE different world. Very stressful. If you’re not used to just “fitting” (regardless of how many lanes are painted on the street), it really freaks you out. The other thing was that the speed “limit” seemed to be “as fast as you can” - so you’d do these spurts of like 50 mph for a block, and then slow down again.
When I got back home, I happened to meet a sales rep for the company I worked for at the time. He lived in Rome. I talked to him about the driving. And then asked if there was any place even more crazy than Rome. His reply: Napoli.
I learned to drive - stick - in Midtown Manhattan, so nothing on earth could scare me. But try being a pedestrian in the Principality of Monaco. Worse than Rome or Florence, with more expensive cars that go 0-60 in nanoseconds.
I am in Rome right now, having driven here from Siena. It was a lot easier than I expected. As someone else pointed out, the drivers know what they are doing and expect everyone else to do so also. Yes, they put their cars into the tiniest of gaps, but it all seemed to work.
One example. One road had two lanes each way. There were frequently cars double-parked, narrowing that direction to one working lane. Yet traffic flowed and nobody got stuck. If you were in the blocked lane, you just moved over and the cars to your left expected that and left (just enough) room.
One of our tour guides said that Naples is crazy, though.
The worst driving I ever saw was in Bucharest, Romania. I was there for two weeks on business a couple of years ago. I’m telling you, I saw a car crash happen right in front of my eyes every other day.