Do Italians think their language sounds that much different than Spanish?

I just checked in a pair of guys in their late 30s from Rome. They proceeded to come out to the computer, look up the hostel on the booking.com and compare all of our photos, ratings, customer reviews etc to everything else in the price range. Out loud. I get the impression that one guy booked the hostel, and his friend was expecting a hotel and wasn't so stoked.

It was fun to tell the guys a few minutes later that I had lived in Milan. I threw a little "come si ciama" at 'em. I think they were mildly embarrassed.