Italian streets

So, as most people know by now, i'm in Italy. Here in Italy they don't really have a benefits system. This means there are lots of poor people who have no back up on money and hence means that theres alot of beggars. In all the cities i've been in in the UK I've never met more than one beggar per time i'm in the city centre. Here everytime I go out my door to get to university I pass at least three.
Sometimes these are people sitting down with a cup, which is what i'm used to. More often here its people trying to sell you something. They sell flowers, socks, tissues.. anything to make a quick bit of money. I don't mind this, everyone has to find their own way, and i'm sad that the Italian government doesn't try and help them.
This isn't all though. Sometimes they don't have anything to sell, they just come up and ask for money. I find this annoying, but I don't blame them. What I don't like is when you refuse them more than once and they keep following you and talking to you. Sometimes they don't take no for an answer, and there are a bunch of this kind of people.
Lastly, and thankfully alot more rare, is a differnt type. Quite a few of them touch you. This I find a complete voliation of personal space and it makes me very uncomfortable. Normally you can carry on walking and they drop it. Not every time. For the second time ever today I had someone cling to me. The first time was this big black guy who grabbed my arm and kept it even after I tried to stuggle. I got very scared and told him in a raised (and no doubt paniced) voice that I had a lecure and he let me go. It shocked me.
Today I had something similar. This time it was a woman who grabbed my coat on my arm and clung pathetically and whined at me. I told her to her face that I was scared but she carried on. She went closer to me and she was right up against my bag. She moved back and I thought I saw her hand moving as if to hide something. I said "what did you do?" in a shocked voice and checked my bag. I honestly believed she had taken something, but I was wrong. At this point she obviously realised she'd pushed me too far for money and moved back and I left.
I can understand that in Italy people are more open with touching, but from strangers surely thats not normal. I find it so so creepy