Haven't seen that many. Maybe I'm used to other standards Bologna is not Sulmona, but I wouldn't say it's so bad. I can't find any statistics though
I have been many times in Italy, and seen many cities (but not Bologna - yet), but I haven't seen a junkie there. Never.
Well, maybe there are not a lot, but Italy is not a junkie free country. If your book is about traveling by train maybe it's talking about train stations, which usually are not very safe and clean places. But I'm just guessing.
The name of the book is "Italy by train", and it's written by Tim Jepson. About Bologna, Jepson writes: "The flip side is the price of everything, the cost of living being high, if not higher, than in Milan or Florence. Then there's the weather, which can be stiflingly humid in summer, and retentlessly misty and miserable in autumm. For all its surface gloss, the city also has a underside, manifest by its junkies and a few streets you'd not want to be alone in at night".
cost of living higher than Milan? I'm far from being an expert about Milan, but I'm a bit surprised. Yes, the weather in the region can be a bit annoying, although I'm not sure it can be more stiflingly humid than other places in the summer.