Italy is partly compliant with the JARs...it's in the process of changing to the JAR system...but being Italians, they take forever and are behind everyone else as usual (I'm Italian myself, so I can relate).
I have an FAA PPL working on FAA IR. I'll be converting to JAR PPL/IR if not CPL/IR one day and will be looking into flying in Italy...
I just noticed though that for example on the entire island of Sicily there are like 3 airports total...where as in that much space in the US, you would proably at least have a dozen or more...
sad...
Archer