After a few misadventures buying bikes from Italy, I've found a couple of warnings worth mentioning:
Never buy a bike if the stem, bars, brake levers, and pedals appear newer than the rest of the bike, as this often means it began life as a City Bike, and these parts were replaced to make it into and ersatz sport/racing model, possibly to increase it's value on eBay.
When in doubt, ask about the width of the gap between the chainring and the crank arm. If there's lots of room, it probably originally had a chaincase or chainguard, thus a City Bike.
Though there are some wonderful City Bikes from Italy, many used inferior tubing and lack the attention to detail of high-end racing models.
For some bikes, especially Bianchi, if the head lugs look wonderful but the seat cluster is kinda chuncky, it was originally a mid-range bike.
It can be difficult and COSTLY to obtain period-correct stem, bars, pedals, and toeclips, especially if the bike used in-house bits (Bianchi, Legnano, Olmo, etc.), and ESPECIALLY if you need/want a stem longer than about 8cm.
Aldo Ross
Middletown, Ohio