One would like to hope that said receptionist would have told them to get to the back of the queue, rather than the customer having to do it, thus avoiding the aforementioned scene and bad feelings....
...on the assumption that is, that everyone who is eligible for the lounge is of the same status. Unfortunately, for those who are unduly concerned about the sort of "status" imparted by possession of such priority passes, frequent flyer programmes etc is that there's invariably someone with a higher status, tier points, priority ranking etc than them, and this realisation can be a little painful when brought home in such a manner.
(also suspect what will really polarise is your characterisation of Italians, rather than the lounge etiquette query, but you probably know that already....)