This is going to sound really weird.. but I'm afraid to speak Italian?

So my family hosted an exchange student from Italy this past school year. I'd been taking Italian classes for a year before she arrived, and during the year she was with us. I also learned quite a bit just from having her around. This summer, she and her family invited me back to Italy to stay with them for a month in an area where there aren't a lot of tourists (obviously) and it's very.. Italian! So, I'm here, and I've been here for three days but for some reason, whenever I go out, I speak English. Most people can understand me well enough and I'd really like to speak Italian to them but I get flustered when I do and stammer and all of the people think I'm stupid or something. It's funny because I can almost 100% understand what they are all saying, but I don't talk to them at all except every now and then in English. So, it sounds really stupid, but how can I push myself past the fear of messing up the grammar or mispronouncing something and being laughed at? Because speaking English isn't any better then that. My exchange student speaks nearly perfect English so I talk to her all the time but everyone else speaks butchered English. I really just need to open my mouth and SPEAK but for some reason, I get really embarrassed and just can't find my words. Pep talk, please??? :)