German Language Barrier

The biggest difference that I found between Rome and Germany, other than the obvious layout of the city, were the people and their communication skills. In Rome almost no one speaks English, and if they do it is broken and very difficult to understand. When you try to speak Italian though to a native speaker, they love it. Italians instantly put a smile on their face and try very hard to communicate with you using hand gestures, facial expressions, and nods. In Germany though, I got the impression that absolutely everyone spoke English, some better than others but everyone nonetheless. Furthermore, if you tried to speak German (which only one of the 4 of us traveling could do with any sort of assurance) the people would completely disregard it and speak to you in English anyway. I didn't like this that much. I think that half the fun of being in foreign places is the difficulty of being an American. As Americans we are so used to having things handed to us on a silver platter and when we have the difficulty of understanding someone else's culture, to me, it is refreshing. Other than that, everyone was very nice and helpful to us while we were there.