Italian motorways are scary. I didn't notice too many guard rails, but the road was narrow (2 lanes) and there were fences running along the whole road between Ferrara and Venice. I was sitting in the back of taxi doing 140 kmh/90 mph and there were people overtaking us. Crazy bunch, them Italians, inside a car or out. (Somebody quick, tell me the line about books and dogs.)
The fences must have been the job they gave the company that didn't land the job of actually building the road: fences on all sides, even on bridges crossing the road. I bet they even buried a fence beneath the tarmac.