Advice on shipping sunglasses back from Italy

I'm unsure what you're asking. Are you asking how to ship the glasses or how to send payment to the B&B owner to cover the shipping cost? I assume the former is something the owner could handle with no problem. Just make sure he or she uses a sturdy box to prevent crushing. For the latter, you could do a bank transfer using a commercial service such as Transferwise.

The cheapest will be by Italian Post. But you'll wait a long while and they would need to be packed really well to avoid damage.

More reliable is to send UPS or FedEx via their slowest routing. But that will cost more. They can usually pack the item and are experienced in doing so to avoid damage. But for a small and light pair of glasses, the cost shouldn't be all that much (I've shipped boxes of books by comparison).

You cannot "prepay" the shipping; you'll have to reimburse the owner.

FedEx is world wide, give them a call.

How about finding someone who will soon be in Venice to pick them up for you, and then shipping them to you from the States.
Seems like the safest thing to do.

I don't understand the OP's question. A telephone call to the owner of the B&B would likely result in the owner agreeing to ship them to an address here in the U.S. Assuming that the B&B owner takes credit cards, the cost of shipping could be paid before he was out of pocket. Alternatively, the sunglasses could be delivered to or picked up by the FedEx office in Venice, at Sestiere di San Marco 71 - 30124 Venezia (VE), telephone +39 041 2702850. Is there something complicated about this that I don't get?

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

I'd want the glasses double boxed, with some sort of padding in both boxes. The boxes should be sturdy corrugated cardboard unless the glasses are in a crushproof case. My concern would be that a small, lightweight box would be easily crushed by a heavier box during the automated sortation process.