I haven't visited Naoles but once spent three months working in Rome. The Italians at that time had to pay to scrap cars and didn't want to do so. So they were in the practice of abandoning the cars at the roadside, minus numberplates etc. The cars were subject to pilfering of useful parts so they were a considerable eyesore and that in the main tourist areas.

There were three police forces in Rome and all of them hard on motorists. My Italian opposite number told me that the police would give a thick ear to a motorist who argued. He contrasted that to Naples where if the policeman was rude to a motorist the motorist would give the policeman the thick ear.

In Rome you crossed the street carefully because the motorists wouldn't slow down. The younger set did their courting on moter scooters. I've seen two girls on one scooter herded off the road by two boys on another scooter. The girls seem to welcome that kind of attention.

Back in the mid-90s, Car Magazine ran an interview with a European brand manager at Nissan about the different trim / colour preferences across the various European countries.

I clearly remember him saying "In France, Spain and Italy they prefer plain black plastic bumpers rather than body-colour, because they touch-park there ..."