The convention that you, as Italians, will refer to to apply for permanent residency in Panama is called the "Friendship Treaty" in slang terms and officially the "Panama-Italy Trade and Navigation Convention." As you will notice, the legal name emphasizes the words "trade" and "navigation." The convention was created to guarantee two things: residency and then citizenship in Panama for Italians. To obtain residency and then be entitled to citizenship, Italians must demonstrate a "commercial" connection with the Republic of Panama. This requires the opening of a company of which you are the sole true owners and sole shareholders (or 50% shareholders) of a company, one and only one. This requirement is often misunderstood or deliberately omitted by street advisors, as they are called in Panama, that is, the last resorts looking for clients, whose goal is not to guarantee a legal transfer procedure to Panama, but to profit at the expense of poor clients who accept the risk to save on the company. What happens? Essentially, the client doesn't pay for the company, but only the legal process for obtaining residency. Their advisor, perhaps just the front page of some unfortunate law firm, will use a company that has been recycled hundreds of times, swapping its shares for the name of the last unfortunate individual. The unfortunate individual will proceed to obtain the residency that will initially be provided. After a year or two, during a routine migration review, it is discovered that the same company the client knew nothing about has been blacklisted due to the excessive number of clients who have become residents through the same residency. The result: the residency is revoked, and they are unable to re-obtain it for the rest of their lives. Even worse, if the five-year period expires, and upon the citizenship application, a review of past requirements is carried out to discover whether there was any prior negligence, concealed from the client. This is a typical case of a "last-minute offer" that many fall for.
Source: Panama Migration
Source: PDF Source (Number 8 in the PDF refers to the company)
Read about how to get residency in Panama, the procedures and its visas