What is it about Italy and organisation?

Italy and organization - MWAH-HA-HA!!!

You're probably gonna get many replies 'about that time that': United didn't notify someone of something...AND Delta...AND British Airways...AND Continental (rest its soul)...AND Ryanair...AND Air France...AND Amtrak...AND Super Shuttle...AND Trenitalia...AND Princess Cruises...AND...

...this is why you confirm your reservations ;-) And it's a good thing you did! I hope those two hours don't greatly impact your plans. Don't forget - many an email has indeed been sent, but arrived in The Land of Misfit Toys, aka, Junk/Spam folders; this seems to happen fairly often with foreign email addresses :-(

I don't confirm my flights anymore, but I do check the various websites, like the airline website, the day before or so, to find out about the latest flight info.
I don't rely on their email notifications only, because you never know. Sometimes emails get re-directed to spam by firewalls.
Meridiana is not doing too well financially. They just announced 1600 layoffs. So the sooner you get on that plane and use that ticket the better it is.

It is not Italy and not the organization. it is the airlines. You should always confirm flights a week or so in advance AND the day before. We have been nearly burned on a couple of occasions when changes were not announced. It is a part of traveling smart with min hassle.

It's really fun when a connecting flight is moved up WHILE you are en route!

No, it's not Italy; it's just the general cluster you-know-what that air travel has become.

I'm leaving for Italy in a little over a week after having bought the tickets way back in January. The flights were slightly changed THREE TIMES! And of course I check them every so often and saw there was a problem and had to call the airline to figure out what was going on. Only on the last change did I even get an email about it. These are Alaska Airlines and American, BTW. So it aint just Italian airlines.

I usually make airline reservations as far in advance as possible (usually Delta), sign up for email alerts, and wait for them to roll in, which they do, at least three changes before departure. I always check a week before, and do online check-in 24 hours before.

Don't know about Europe, yet. But I use TRIPIT on my iPhone and get great results. The app will notify me when flight or gate changes occur. I'm looking forward to checking out TRIPIT's effectiveness when I go to Italy this coming March. Without TRIPIT I would always either call or check the Internet on my flight at least a day before. Again, haven't experienced Europe, but always a good practice to check flights. But after all of this, your question wasn't about checking flights, it was why don't airlines in Europe do a better job of notifying the flying public (their customers) when they make flight changes. To that concern, Lord only knows why they do or don't do what they do.

Changing flight times doesn't just happen in Italy. It has happened to me in the US and the airline (United) never contacted me even though they had e-mail and telephone information. Always confirm flights.

Meridiana notified me by email well in advance when they changed their schedules and my flight. Last year, El Al canceled my evening flight from Madrid and put me on a flight the next morning without any notification, apparently because of Iberia's labor disputes - they code-share . I only found out when I tried to check-in online. Luckily my hotel wasn't full so I had a room for the night.

Heck - in Colorado one time - we had a connecting flight moved forward to leave before the first flight arrived in Denver. We had to rent a car after our first flight arrived in Denver instead and skip the shuttle flight altogether.

I recommend d seeing if the airports you are flying into have an app for your phone. Not only will it tell you things like which gate you are departing from but that is the only way we were notified that our flight from Amsterdam to Rome had been cancelled because of a strike.