Yes, I've noticed that about many people from western European countries.
I went 28 years ago. Still kicking myself for not saving some of the banknotes. Oh well....
I am trying to learn Italian now in case I ever get the money to go back. The Vatican Museum alone was amazing. Heck, it was a great trip all around especially for a high school kid.
I understand that Italy is one of the European Union states with less fluent English speakers than, say, Netherlands or Denmark (where just about everyone speaks English). That's good for me, because I do not want to spend all this time learning a language of a country in which its citizens prefer to speak to me in English rather than me having to learn their language. What would be the point, eh? So in other words, a native English speaker with fluency, or quasi-fluency, in Italian would be more in demand than one who went through the trouble to learn Dutch or Swedish for example.