An Italian couldn’t understand Spanish (if he only knows Italian) and a German couldn’t understand Yiddish if he walked around Williamsburg
I had always heard that Italian and Spanish were similar.
Last summer I was in Italy and I dont speak Italian, I would ask people if they spoke english and they said no, I would then ask them if they spoke spanish (I speak some spanish) and they said no.
I then asked them what I wanted in SPANISH, and they understood and was able to help me with my request. Eventually I stopped asking people if they spoke spanish and just asked them directly in Spanish what I wanted and I got what I wanted.