Like Shorty says, it depends on how you are as a tourist as to the reception you get. Sarah is super-friendly so pretty much anywhere she goes people will be friendly back. I've been to lots of places across the world and I've never experienced any kind of xenophobia... even with Britain having a reputation for behaving poorly when travelling abroad.

There will be some tourists who complain about certain places/people being rude. Sometimes they might not realise that they have actually been quite rude themselves in the first place.

All the Italians I've met have been lovely. I was in a bar in Venice a few years ago watching the Inter Milan v Manchester United game. The Italians in the bar were obviously favouring Milan whereas I was the only guy from Manchester there. They all knew I was a United supporter but there was no animosity there at all. We were actually winding each other up whenever our team had a chance to score!

Every country will have it's fair share of rude people though.