This does not help the OP but Italy has people all over the US who can process student visas in person, see this just for cities around Chicago
http://www.conschicago.esteri.it/con...ete_consolare/

"odorous" - it stinks!

<<<But I also thought that if you were applying individually for a student visa (not the school applying for a bunch of students), you had to go in person to the consulate for an interview? I thought you had to do it by personal appt and appear.<<<

While I'm not familiar with how the Italian Consulate operates, when DD was getting a visa for Spain she had a very difficult time even setting up the initial appointment. They would not answer any questions over the phone. Everything required an appointment and it helped that she was fluent in Spanish.

>>>You mean to say that someone in a state hundreds of miles away from the nearest consulate must go to a consulate to get the mandated visa <<<

Yes, the nearest to your home location (for KY it was Chicago). DD was able to get an exception and go to the one nearest her college in Boston. I believe she needed 9 passport photos, but don't recall if all of them had to do with the visa. She also had to go to the Consulate three times. YMMV

In reverse, my Edinburgh friends and relations had to go to Belfast(!) or London for US long stay visas, another reason perhaps for their being pro-Independence.