We hired a VW campervan a couple of years ago. Drove around Scotland.
Key lessons:
The one he hired was a fairly new import from wherever they still make the old style VW vans (Brazil?), converted in UK to a campervan. The gear box, handbrake and steering were trickier than the typical modern vehicle (I've driven vans and cars without power steering before). DH found steering without power a pain, I didn't, but I found changing gears was like stirring porridge, not a clue where the gears were. Hill starts were an utter nightmare. Obvs we got better at driving it as the week went on, but the first couple of days the driving was hard work.
That said, a VW campervan size vehicle goes in a normal parking bay with ease, which is a boon in town centres, supermarkets etc.
The turnaround from driving set up to sleeping set up and back again was more of a pain than I anticipated. So if you take your vehicle off site during the day you have to pack stuff away, take the roof down etc and switch it all back to go to bed. If we'd bought a campervan, we'd have invested in a drive away awning to minimize that hassle.
Less indoor space than a family size tent. Less likely to be an issue in Italy than it is in Scotland, but there were more moments of feeling a bit like we were living in a car.
We slept better in the campervan than we tend to in a tent.
We met a family that were touring Europe, on the night we met them they were planning to spend in the night in a lay-by on a quiet road in the Highlands. I was a bit envious, but that night there was a storm and they had to de-pitch in the middle of the night, move the car and sleep in the car seats holding the younger children. Put me off the footloose and fancy free approach a bit.
It was quite fun to go around in such an eye catching vehicle.
We were thinking of buying a campervan, in the end we opted for investing in better camping kit. DS much preferred spending longer in each place so he could make campsite friends.
If I did it again, I forego the VW cool factor and get something easier to drive that didn't need the beds to be packed away to enable you to take the vehicle off site. If you're taking bikes, less of an issue. A modern VW built in the UK would be much easier to drive, but more expensive to hire.