What I've learned about Italians

1. Italians really like dogs.  Dogs are everywhere.  There are a ton of dog-friendly parks in Milan, which is good, because I've seen what the sidewalks look like in cities without dog parks (Genova).  Dogs go in stores, dogs go in cafes, dogs go on the metro, some dogs appear to be living in bars/cafes.  They are most small dogs (for small apartments), but occasionally there are some big ones.  There is a dog clothing store closer to my apartment than a human clothing store, and I don't even live in a rich/yuppy part of town.
2. Italians care about San Remo, but not Eurovision.  This is perhaps on too small of a sample size... but some of my colleagues got the San Remo-winning song stuck in my head.  I found out it is the Italian representation at Eurovision this year and told my colleagues that I would watch and cheer for Italy.  However, they had no idea what Eurovision is.  Even after I explained it.  I might as well egregiously extrapolate: Italians care more about competition within Italy (and between Italian cities/regions) than between Italy and the rest of the world.
3. While many aspects of the driving are questionable, they are very respectful of pedestrian and cyclists.  I'm always careful about walking out in front of cars, even in crosswalks, but I find people always stop here.  Even when I'm not about to walk out into the street, cars stop.  I've seen others walk in front of cars that are going fairly fast, knowing the cars will stop.  People may drive way too fast on my tiny little residential road, but I've seen no issues with pedestrians or cyclists.  
4. Italians are (seemingly) not upset by people speaking their language badly.  Initially, everyone was very willing to speak to me in English at the hospital.  Once they found out I spoke some Italian, they spoke to me in Italian.  They don't seem to mind that my Italian is terrible.  I met up with my Airbnb host, and the same thing happened.  After I demonstrated an ability to hack my way through some Italian, we ended up speaking entirely in Italian.  Consistently, people have demonstrated patience with my poor Italian and occasional need to switch to English - not just people I know at the hospital, but in stores as well.  
5. They have a lot of rules, but few of them are taken very seriously.  It took months to sort out the legal paperwork for me to be at the hospital, but I never received a badge or e-mail or anything.  When using the Metro, one must scan the ticket both to enter and leave.  But, I've witnessed many people jump the turnstile (without any of the guards blinking an eye) and found that I could argue myself through the one time I made a mistake.  Recently they had us start signing the lunch tickets - I think to regulate the fact that many non-students are using them.  All of us non-students sign them... but nothing changed.