In Italy, it seems common to use city names (rather than names of other things) when spelling words out in noisy environments where the words themselves cannot be heard clearly. I have gathered a list of these and have used, for each letter, the name of the largest (or most well known) Italian city I was aware of which begins with such letter (this way the names should be more likely to be recognized across all of Italy):
- A di Ancona o Agrigento
- B di Bari o Bologna o Bergamo
- C di Cagliari o Como
- D di Domodossola
- E di Empoli o Enna
- F di Firenze
- G di Genova
- H di ???
- I di Imperia o Imola
- J di ???Jesolo
- K di ???
- L di Lecce o Lucca o Lecco
- M di Modena o Mantova
- N di Napoli
- O di Oristano
- P di Palermo o Pordenone o Pisa
- Q di ???Quintilio
- R di Roma
- S di Salerno o Savona
- T di Torino
- U di Urbino
- V di Venezia o Varese o Vercelli
- W di ???
- X di ???
- Y di ???
Z di ???
What's the best way to fill in the blanks above, and is there a standard assignment anywhere of letters to (city) names that works for Italians? (this link may help answer the question).
The NATO Phonetic Alphabet is an example of a standardized code which maps each letter to a word, just as described above, in a standardized manner, (and is only used by people who work in specific areas such as the military and law enforcement). I wonder whether in Italy standardized codes made up in this manner exist.