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Some or all of the following means of communication will be necessary for your everyday life in Italy. This is a brief overview:

Post
Post office opening hours are normally 0830-1900 Monday-Friday, 0830-1300 Saturdays.

Postage stamps can be purchased at tabaccheria (tobacconists) or post offices. However, sending letters from the post office means you can check the postage is sufficient. If it is not, airmail will be sent by surface mail! Added March 2007 by Max:
Preferred way of sending mail is 'Posta Prioritaria' (priority mail), priced at 0.60EUR for normal sized letters up to 20g. If the destination is abroad the delivery will be by air mail. Normal mail is cheaper and takes a bit more to be delivered. The Post is quite reliable and more efficient than in the past. You shouldn't need to enter the yellow post offices. Mail boxes are red.

Many Italians pay bills using the Conto Corrente (giro credit) payment slip at post offices, causing long queues.

Added March 2007 by Max:
Queues are mostly caused by unflexibility of employee duties. Don't be shocked if you see one employee with a very long queue and a second one with the 'closed' sign sitting nearby.

Television
Television set owners must pay the 'Canone d'Abbonamento' tax, costing about 100 Euro yearly.

The television system in Italy works with the PAL standard. The state-owned Italian Broadcasting Company RAI owns 3 channels (RAI Uno/Due/Tre), broadcasting in Italian, along with many private channels.

To see foreign-language programmes you will need a satellite dish ('Antenna Parabolica'). There are many free satellite channels - a digital decoder can access even more (for example, Sky News and CNN)