Oh, yes, southern Italy - Puglia - was still full of colourful knitwear.  Also Dickies - in quite pricey shops.  That I do not understand.  Sta-prest perhaps but not Dickies.  Or am I missing something?

Last time I was in Italy I saw too many cement factories on that memorable journey between Rome and Venice.  The skies had darkened upon leaving Rome and stayed that way the entire journey, thus contradicting a million travel brochures.  It poured with rain in Venice but they were all prepared for it in their handsome overcoats, scarves and gloves.  Back in England proto-Brexit man was shivering in his three-quarter length Matalan horrors and shiny football shirts.  Mind you, a journey in a cramped bus pressed up against a crowd of sweaty Venetian workers brought tears to my eyes and guaranteed I was ready for fresh air and sea-breezes.  I'd go back in a trice, though.  The Med may be joyful but both Paris and Cannes have too many thoughtless dog-owners!

Croatia is a good cheaper alternative to Italy

Girona/Gerona I adored.  Late supper in the company of a gorgeous girl.  Cheap, warm bread from the market.  A couple making very noisy love in the next room while I reread 'Portnoy's Complaint' and contemplated my future back in England.  The eerie feeling around a church that looked as it might have taken a battering in the Civil War. 
Did not care much for Barcelona.  No whining English voices in Girona, but plenty at the waterfront and at the airport.