Originally Posted by KLouis

Sorry for coming back, but let me put it differently. OP is worried about Italian immigration (border police) giving him a hard time for the reasons he laid out and not a non valid visa at CI. He has no problems with the Italian authoriries because when leaving Italy for the UK he'll show his Italian ID card and the "problem" is solved. You don't address his problem but you think he worries about checking in and not having a visa. While checking in, though, he'll show his US passport to the airline agent (OP is a US citizen) and there is no way that any airline will deny him boarding with a valid US passport. Clear? As for my point b), it was just anecdotal and I wrote myself that this should not be considered by anybody being something to rely on.