Hello BillyW,
Although I'm US native I work in Italy as pilot sisce 1998.
In Italy JAR-OPS 3 and FCL 2 is used to discipline helo ops nationwide.
It is Agusta's playground, you will find all them flying in hems and offshore.
Singles are Eurocopter 350 family.
Basicaly the market is 50% hems, 10% offshore, 30% firefighting, 10% flight school.
Hems bases are 40 all with twins, 10 are H24 all with two pilots each 12 hours of duty.
Hems pilots like me usually work on 7/7 skedule, 12 to 13 work hours per day (depending of season), maximum 2000 work hours/year, maximum 183 working days/year.
Hems & OS is operated by employers like Elilario, Elilombarda, Airgreen, Elifriulia, Elidolomiti, Helitalia flying 109, 139, 412, few 117, 145 & 135's.
Firefighting is mostly AS350 job from Air Service, Eliwork, and a number of small operators and 7 European Air Cranes S64 E's.
95% of employment contracts are in white (salary, rests, taxes payed by employer ecc.); monthly salary are 1500€ for newbes, 2300€ firefighting pilots and FI, 2700€ for FO in hems & OS, 3500€ for young captains in multi crew.
All is disciplined by the National Contract for Helicopter Pilots in force since 1998.
As long as I know insurance matters here is not as strict as overseas.
Say that if you don't have incident record you can work fine depending of your skills.
Market is very closed to non-italian speaking people; that's why is stabile and static.
What else?
Ah, Bureaucracy? What is this???
Basic rule of rules: "italian governments make laws, italian people make ways to avoid them".
Ciao
Maeroda