I would appreciate any guidance available to determine if there are any dealers selling Canon or Epson wide format printers in Italy (preferably) or Europe. The shipping from the USA makes purchase there prohibitive.

Donald, if you go to the Canon and Epson main webites and then go to Europe you will find full information on distribution in Italy. I just took a quick look at the Canon site and it looks like they do.

Thanks Ted, I have been trying to locate one of the regional offices and having difficulty obtaining a response. Finally, this afternoon, a HP rep called from Rome and he will call on me the first of next week. Luckily he lives nearby.

The largest camera retailer in Milan seemed to be uniformed on anything larger than a 13 inch printer.

Donald, if things don't work with the chap from Rome drop me anemail and I will pass it onto the HQ HP product manager.