I suspect that the observation by Taleb that high status people talk more softly needs a caveat. I think people who know they have status talk more softly to convey that they don't have to fight for attention. And such signaling naturally requires the situation allow people to notice.
Which is to say in that in a more primal situation, where no one knows anyone's status, being loud and aggressive is the way to gain status when status is not yet established. And this seems like source of American loudness, America being a nation where many seek status and the hierarchy of status is often not established.
You can sometimes cross the street and the environment in a cafe is the complete opposite.
I noticed this and thought maybe it's because in the bay area there are a lot of choices for everything (restaurants, cafes) so everyone gets in their little niche. Maybe in your place of origin there is less variety?
Romans are generally louder then people from Milan, but often foreigners are louder than us, especially South Americans and Americans (from USA).
On the contrary, Chinese and northern African are quiter.
French sound nicher to many, so they usually don't notice their loudness, but in my experience they usually make more noise than Italians, are more rude with the waiters and complain a lot.
I think it all depends on the setup, Italian restaurant are usually family businesses, cheap enough that you could eat there everyday, where tables are mostly very close to one another, if you are too loud people at other tables can easily be annoyed by the noise, while French restaurant have more space between tables and they feel free to turn the volume up a bit and it becomes an habit.
I am personally a very private person and I don't like being loud cause I don't want other people's to listen to what I'm saying, which is very easy if the other table is literally 50 cm away, and have developed an habit of being extremely quite, such as I have a very hard time having a normal conversation when I'm abroad and everyone scream (for my standards)
It is true tough that we are famous for "making a scene" it's not uncommon to go to the restaurant and find a couple fighting loudly
I put Italians in the middle of the bar, on average.
Outdoors things are changing too - tax on tobacco is ever increasing, even if it's still relatively cheap in some European countries, and more people are conscious of the damage smoking does to their bodies. Additionally, a lot of smokers, especially in more affluent European countries, have switched to vaping.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_cigaret...
That's because these f are blowing stinking odours in everybody's faces and clothes. Yes, even outside. I strongly defend that my right to fresh air trumps their right to smoke and annoy a whole terrace.