I've been told many horror stories about people not getting paid in Italy. Although to be honest, I have a few friends who do freelance work in the US and they sometimes don't get paid either. Around the 13th, I sent my first fattura (invoice) to the company that I developed a website for. I didn't work for the end-client, but for a web company. They told me that they'd pay me as soon as they received the funds from the end-client as soon as they were paid.