I'm sorry, but you're coming across as a parody of an awful America tourist.
I don't think the majority of Italians are going to be all beat up about the fact that taxi drivers in their country speak (gasp!) Italian and not English.
Although, stalking you via your HN profile, I note that you may not in fact be American. That just means you have no excuse!
But wait: I actually understand Italian. The point is not that they do not speak English, the point is; it is another point of service. He asked what superior service; multi lang is better than unilang right?
And they do their best to accomodate you even as a foreigner.
And maybe it is different in Italy, but in NL (where I am from) not too many people like the rude regular cab drivers: it is not only tourists :) That has changed a bit since Uber but not a lot so still not a lot of incentive to take the regular ones.
It's not something that I would personally worry about when taking a taxi. As long as you can say the name of your destination, or write it down, you'll be ok. I doubt it's more than a very small minority of people in Italy who will miss Uber for this reason.
Still not what I meant or implied. Maybe my dutch-english brain is off today as I do not know how to say it differently; I was not singling out language; it is an advantage. An advantage; not the top one, not the most important by any means. But wow, everyone is touchy about that. As native Dutch I would not mind the rest of my life speaking English or Spanish or German or Mandarin and never Dutch but I see others really fly off the handle. I am a person who goes to countries prepared and I speak my languages; I said it is an extra feature for drivers, not a must.
I don't think the majority of Italians are going to be all beat up about the fact that taxi drivers in their country speak (gasp!) Italian and not English.
Although, stalking you via your HN profile, I note that you may not in fact be American. That just means you have no excuse!