When I was a student at Stanford some years ago, they made arrangements for students to open free checking accounts at the local bank in Oxford, England. I would be rather surprised if they don't have similar arrangements in Italy. IMO it is the least they can do since tuition has almost tripled.

Seriously, your son should investigate the feasibililty of opening a local account which will have zero ATM fees. If that doesn't work, maybe you should consider one of the internet banks which rebates ATM fees. I don't have time to do the research for you, but there are dozens of threads on this subject.