If you used these instructions:
Then, as I predicted this is not sufficient to distinguish the images that you want from those that you don't want since either through an import develop preset or partial adjustments, every image meets the criteria. You need another characteristic to create your Smart Collection. These can be Pick flag, Ratings (stars) or a color label. If you choose one of these, then the Smart Collection Criteria can be as simple as any one of the following:
{Pick Flag}{is}{flagged}
{Label Color}{is}{red}
{Rating}{is}{✭✭✭✭✭}
Folders are not sufficient to organize images. Each (important) image should be assigned one or more key words. Then it is simply a click on that keyword in the keyword list to produce a grid view of all of the images that contain that keyword
Or a Smart Collection with at least the criteria like:
{Keyword}{Contains}{
myKeyword}
I suspect that all of the folders that you created have names that should really be keywords instead of folder names. Consider that every time you are doing an eyeball scan of images in a folder, that you have taken the time to select the right folder "hoping" that the image is indeed in that folder and then visually scanning thumbnail after thumbnail looking for just the right image. Instead you could probably just as quickly create a Smart Collection with criteria like the following:
Match{all}
{Capture Date}{is in the Range}{2016-11-15} to {2016-11-15} (
the dates of my last adventure)
{Pick Flag}{is}{flagged}
{Label Color}{is}{purple} (
the label color that I use for completed images)
{Rating}{is greater than}{✭✭✭}
For the most part, I keep my Folder panel hidden. My workflow is exclusively through Smart Collections and Publish Services. Based upon certain characteristics a Smart Collection tells me when I have finished processing an image. For me a completely processed image will have keywords, a Title, a Caption, Adjustments and a Crop (or a keyword indicating that it was intentional to leave this image uncropped).
I have several Publish Services that collect finished images automatically. Some go to Facebook, others go to a folder where I have images to submit for my local camera club monthly competition. All that I do is work my images through my adaptation of John Beardsworth's
Workflow smart collections and periodically go to the Publish Services and press the {Publish} button
My reasoning about the closed Folder panel is that if at anytime I need to open a folder to find an image, I am not using LR at its most efficient. I have Smart Collections that tell me which images need titles, Captions, Keywords or crops. I use a color coded label system so that I can tell a glance which images are "to be worked" (red - assigned on import), "a work in progress" (yellow), "needs a further review" - (green), "Complete but not in a published collection" - (blue), and "Complete and in a Published collection" (purple).
I begin my workflow by examining the red label images assigning a yellow label for the ones I want to work, assigning a reject flag to the culls, assigning a Pick flag for the exceptional images. The I have Smart collections that identify which images need keywords. (I try to assign at least two — "what" and "where.) Every image that is a keeper gets a title and a caption. Smart Collections identify those. When I do develop adjustments , I work each image thoroughly until all adjustments are complete. Some of theses edited images are failures and during develop I may reject (X) those. Once I "think" my post precessing is complete, I assign a green label and review each green labeled image of completeness before changing the label to blue or purple.
Much of this is probably beyond the scope of what you are trying to do now with your 7600 photos of your trip to Italy, but certainly something to consider to already have in place before your next big adventure