No factual experience at that place, I'm afraid. Only a generality: in Italy (and also in other Latin countries, as I hear) e-mail doesn't work, neither does fax. You need to speak to them, even if only over the phone. Parole is binding there, no worries. The harder point might be to either speak Italian yourself, or find someone on the other side who speaks English.
Still more generally: in Italy, and the more so as one goes South, few things are organised, let alone regulated, but many things can be arranged.