I'm not Italian, but have many friends from there.

Is a UK policy, but normally targets old ID cards (carta di identità) as they are really really susceptible to fraud (pic attached). Never heard about problems with passports. Anyway if this happens to me I'll told to the gate agent to call police officers, as they have the tools to check the validity of an ID Card / Passport. And if after it they refuses, is a clear case of denied boarding.