[pif]

> you'd need centralised control over pronunciation as well.

No, not at all. Several Italian words have regional variants, and they are simply spelled differently.

When you are used to a phonetic alphabet, you never wonder how to write what you say.

[lil_cain]

The differences in regional accents between say local Dublin English and the Supra regional Dublin accent (i.e. without even leaving the city) are reasonably large. I dunno what italian dialectal differences is, but Englishes are often very large city.

I'm not saying it's impossible; Trainspotting, for example, is mostly written in phonetic Scottish english. Many english speakers find it difficult to read though, for precisely that reason…