Is it normal my friend was in italy and they hated her/her family?

So my friend traveled to Italy with her family. While she was there, she noticed a lot of people were rude to her when she opened her mouth.

During her first day, when she went to a store to get some food and brought it to the counter, she said something like "nice day out" or whatever and my friend said "yeah, it is". Then the woman asked if she was from America and when my friend replied yes, the woman said "Oh I'm sorry to hear that". What??

Another time, she was out to dinner with her family and they were all talking and this Italian woman who was maybe 50 turned around and shouted "I hate you all" and then THREW pasta at her Mother. These people are really well educated and polite. Her father is a doctor, the Mother is a nurse, my friend is in the middle of college trying to be a teacher..they're not just trashy people and they are genuinely not loud either.

What is with this? Her Mother was furious and said "how dare you do that to me" in Italian and the woman then said "I'll spit at you next" as the woman's daughter told her to sit down. Not one of the employees came over to see if she was okay or offer her a napkin after pasta was thrown at her and ruined her dress.