Hi Joe,
Re how to tell italian Italias from British Italias...... Went through this for awhile trying to help sell an Italia on Flash' website. After a bit of dialogue with Flash and len Ingram the way to determine country of origin on Italia's turned out to be sort of easy. Through a funny turn of events the bike in question had hint number one - a transfer that said "made in England". Hint number two - Reynolds 531 stickers. Italian Italias were not made of british tubing. Three, bottom brackets with british thread vis a vis italian. The last hints were more subtle and had to do with certain workmanship details e.g. small brazeons that were obvious to len but not to me.
Cheers
Tom Rawson
Oakland, CA