In my life I've visited 64 different countries and I've lived in 5, including Greece, my home country. In all of these years I've been pick-pocketted once (in Rome), burglarized once (in Rome)and a "victim" of an attempted and failed robery once (in Napoli), yet I include all of Italy (i.e. also Rome and Napoli ) among the safest places in the world. Still, unless one is a "serial victim" nobody can offer a real asessment on potential crime and health hazards except when based on real statistics, such as Perche did in a post above. Unfortunately (or fortunately), due to my retirement I no longer travel as often as I used to, and if I really miss one country I visited often and lived in for a total of ~5 years, this is Italy.

PS Water tastes good in many Italian cities. For example, both Rome and Perugia where I lived had very tasting water, at least in the neighbourhoods I lived (quartiere africano and Lacugnano, respectively).