[Dottore]

See Todd's comments.

There's very little sense of privacy or intimacy. Everything is discussed freely with friends and relatives—which can be very disturbing if you don't expect this.

Also, and at the risk generalizing, I have yet to meet someone from the mainland who has a highly developed sense of humor. Slip on a banana peel—and that's hilarious. Anything else is entirely lost.

Also, now that I think of it, various personal habits (eating, hygene etc.) are significantly different from that which you may be used to, to become irritating in fairly short order.

That said, there can be many fine compensations for these minor irritants.