A few years ago an aircraft from my airline was party to a near miss on take-off when an Air France taxied across the runway. This was due to the Air France pilots misunderstanding the instructions to hold short of the runway.
An Air France spokesman came out with this remarkable statement:
"All our pilots are fluent in English".
Which is something most of us flying regularly in the same airspace as AF will dispute.
It seems the Alitalia spokesman has his head stuck in the same sand.