For my wife's jure matrimoni application, we need to wire 200 Euros to the interior ministry (Ministero Dell'Interno). Used a recommended service called Xoom.com, which was a lot cheaper than the bank or other services ($5 versus $20+ or a percentage of the amount wired).
Update
About 10 minutes after completing the transfer, I received an email from xoom that it was being cancelled for reasons unknown. I've emailed their customer support people to try to understand why that happened.
Update 11 Nov 2012
Xoom said they only allow person-to-person wire transfers. They don't allow person-government or person-institution transfers.
Update 11 Nov 2012
Retried with Western Union.
Update 15 Nov 2012
Western Union has processed my request and it should be in the account by 20 Nov.
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