What's the area of those flats? Where I live there are plenty of 3 bedroom flats, but they are usually under 100 m^2 (often smaller) and almost always under 150 m^2.
3 bedrooms in 100 m^2 is pretty cramped.
3 bedrooms in 100 m^2 is pretty cramped.
[1] caveat is it is not an appartment but a townhouse with a commercial space in the main floor. It give me exclusive use to another 85m2 rooftop space with a washing machine there so I don't have to dry clothes in the living room + exclusive use of the stairway where I store our 8 bicycles and the standup paddle. But I would say that if I didn't have those extra space I would just not have so many bicycles and things and would hang the clothes to dry hanging at the windows like everybody does.
There's plenty of 150/200/250 m^2 flats in Italy (Rome and Milan especially), but they are very expensive.
Here's a non comprehensive list of actual apartments above 250m (I didn't filter by flat, but you can see plenty are) and this is only the core center of Rome (what would you call downtown), not the entire city.
https://www.immobiliare.it/vendita-case/roma/?criterio=rilev...
I lived in a 180 m^2 3 bedroom (well 2 bed and 1 office) and it seemed about the right size for a family.
I've also lived in a 60 m^2 2 bedroom and it was cramped.
But with 3 bedroom places under 1,000 sq ft, the rooms are too small for even a Queen sized mattress, let alone a King.
Having 3 smaller bedrooms is way better for a family than US style apartments where it's almost impossible to find 3 bedrooms at all.