This was such an unusual thing for me coming from Germany to Italy. The Bus driver would stop at seemingly random places to pick up or drop people off. Once he stopped at the cafe to pick up his newspaper!

> Once he stopped at the cafe to pick up his newspaper!

The horrors!

Was this a comparable environment (big city vs big city, or rural vs rural)? This is a thing for rural services in Ireland (one type of service does this officially; you can ask them to pick you up at your house!), but very much not one for urban services, say.

German bus drivers sometimes stop to check the bins for leftover "Pfandpflaschen" (reusable beverage cans, 25 euro cents per)

I was shocked that in Italy pretty much no one used turn indicators (except buses and taxis), drivers where kinda trying to sus out where everyone is going and this was causing speed adjustments that made the whole thing not that unsafe.