I'd stick with Italians. I had Russians for a few years and they were definitely more twitchy. Not super aggressive, per se, but nervous. More prone to jump into the air during hive inspections, and more prone to ping you when you pass by. Notice I said ping and not sting - they seemed more inclined to give warnings by headbutting me without stinging. YMMV.
I have a potager style garden and I really wanted to keep the bees in it. I did so for a few years, but had to move them when the bears discovered the hives. I don't want to put electric fence wire in my potager garden, so I moved them about 200 ft away.
One thing I noticed fairly consistently is that if you look like a bear they will attack you. In other words, if I was working in the garden wearing dark clothes and bending down on all 4s to tend plants, I'd be likely to get nailed. If I wore lighter colored clothing and/or stood more erect, they wouldn't bother me.