Pagaiando (Paddling) is the only Italian magazine on paper for paddling sports. It is published by FICT - Italian Federation for Amateur Paddling, founded in 1978. FICT initially comprised only river kayaking, but nowadays incorporates also open canoeing and sea-kayaking, with a number of federal meetings, each one with hundreds of participants from Italy and abroad: the Summer Meeting in the French Alps (39th edition in 2016 with almost 500 participants), the October meeting near Genova and many others along the year (www.canoa.org) including the Tiber Descent (38th edition in 2017) www.discesadeltevere.org
The FICT Canoe Academy is its technical body; composed by selected river and sea guides, the Academy trains high level kayakers for guiding and rescuing in rivers (up to 4th class) and in open waters.
From Autumn 2016 FICT is going to include stand up paddling among their sports, with the launch of specific courses for master instructors. The released licences will be three: a first level licence and two advanced licences for navigation in open waters up to 20 knots and for river white waters up to class 2. In both advanced courses, relevant training is dedicated to the rescue and to emergency operations. The whole process will be pretty hard, with two examinations stages (admission to the course and final exam) and minimum 120 hours of training overall.
Why new sup instructors certifications? Aren’t those existing enough? Why such a demanding course?
Stand up paddling is a new sport and paddlers are polarized: beginners, just paddling in front of beaches and around lakes; athletes, with high technical capacity, competing often in harsh conditions. River sup, i.e. stand up paddling in white waters rivers, is a sport with very few followers in Italy. FICT aims to promote sup for a mass of users and for different uses, comparable to those of kayaks and canoes, filling the gap between open waters and the practice of sup in rivers. Thus FICT is planning to form instructors able to face most of circumstances and environments.
Embracing all paddling activities, FICT promotes participation of different paddling means to its meetings, with a view to exchanging practices, techniques, and safety. It’s of great advantage for stand up paddlers to join kayak’s and canoe’s meeting thus benefitting of their long experience.

You should check out the ACA SUP program, as it sounds kinda similar