Stewart,

you can read of problems with shipping to Italy from sellers outside EC:
the actual problem is that items sent with ordinary/priority postal service stop for
3 or 4 weeks at customs office, with high risk of having them lost.

If you ship using express couriers, that have their own customs offices, Italy is no more and no less
dangerous than any other country. I usually receive watches from US in 36 hours with Fedex, included customs clearance,
being in favour of the time zone.

With ordinary post, if you ship with the fastest service, i have to say that it works well, but not as fast as an express courier.
I have to say that i never had a packet lost also with the slower ordinary and priority, but also i've read a lot of complaints about
cheapest fare shippings.