“be less corrupt”
Their Postal System is ran by a bunch of kleptomaniacs. No way you can ship a package to Italy without Registered Service which adds another $17 to the postage cost.
Two years ago I sent two letters to Italy, Registered Mail, they never arrived. Great postal service they have.
You might want to do a little research on that. IIRC it is the country of origin that sets the postal rates. And they keep most of that money, other than some arcane int'l compensation scheme (UPU - Universal Postal Union). For example, if some country sets their rate for an airmail letter to the US at 2 cents, the USPO still has to deliver that letter at their end. Even if it's a loss to them. Perhaps that's not true for parcels, though. The point being, it might not be Italy that's at fault in your example...