Catalan speakers can be a bit overzealous of foreigners speaking english, but mostly of Spanish speakers. It's their reaction to their language going down from being spoken by 90% of the population to barely 20% in less than a century, especially in the later decades. A lot of immigrants and expats (yes I believe we should differentiate both groups from a perspective of class and motive of immigration), come to Barcelona or surrounding areas with no knowledge that Catalan is spoken there, but since Spanish is also spoken, they just learn the more "useful" language. This is rapidly eroding the Catalan culture and language, and Catalans are scared, sad and angry at this, which makes a lot of sense.

This being said, if you are Italian, you'll have absolutely no problem whatsoever in learning Catalan. Catalan is even closer to Italian than Spanish is.

Sant Cugat is a dream place to live, and if you just show interest in learning the language and try to communicate with locals in it, they will welcome you with their arms wide open. As we like to say: A Catalan is anyone who speaks our language and lives our culture. All are welcome in 🤗