Italy was one of the worst experiences for me as well. Everyone wanted to 'help' you do the most basic thing... then they all held out their hand and stated that they "worked for tips". The history was cool, but the culture didn't allow the juice to be worth the squeeze. I'm sure we have cities here like that too though (can only imagine an Anglo-Saxon tourist in Atlanta).
Only the street peddlers in Cartagena were worse.
I had an experience like that, arriving at Denpasar Intl. Airport, Bali, Indonesia. You arrive at almost Midnight from Guam after a 5 hr flight. Totally exhausted. . You survive Immigration, and the inbound security x-ray of your carry-ons.. You then go down to baggage claim, (before Customs), and you find that an airport "Porter" has already collected your baggage and put it on a cart for you. They keep control of the cart. Before you can argue with them, they tell you they are there to help you through the process, because they know you are "tired." It seems OK because they are helping you negotiate the Customs station, which is immediately next to and in view of baggage claim area (more on this later).
After Customs, they then take you over to the "Currency Exchange." And the problem there is, you're so tired, you don't see that the exchanger is giving you a small number of very high value bills (i.e. "Benjamins") as opposed to maybe some smaller $1.00 or $5.00 equivalent bills). You walk away, and that's when the Porter, (still in control of your baggage), hits you up for a tip.
Now, you could very easily wrest control of your baggage from the porter immediately as you arrive at baggage claim. It's your baggage, after all and you have the claim checks for it affixed to your ticket (hopefully). The problem being, as I said above, the Customs station is immediately adjacent to and in view of baggage claim. If you take back your baggage from the porter before going through Customs, the porter can signal the Customs officer to give you a "hard time" as you go through. Lessons learned: Have some smaller Rupiah (Indonesian Currency) bills already with you before you arrive. Otherwise, you'll be giving that porter 10 times what they should be getting for their service.
And, it doesn't stop there. When you arrive back at the airport for your return flight home, the porters are there at the check in area ready to take your checked baggage from you to send it through security scans, etc.
Not this time, dude!
