UPDATE June 22 '23:
Six months later I heard from someone at Salewa USA, who's apparently arranged for me to return the items to Salewa USA for a refund, which I just did. Thus it appears this story (eventually) has a "happy ending." That said, I'm still not "giving all the stars back" because communication really could've been better and I still don't know whether it was at least partially Salewa's fault that my return to Italy was "bounced" back to me. read more