Questions about Italy

I am a kind Italian!!
And I grew up a few kilometers away from Florence, what else can you ask for?
Luca is a very popular name in Tuscany. Of course, we say it Lu'a just because in Tuscany we skip all c's, but that's irrelevant to your story.

So, tell me: do you want your character to do the military service or do you want him to skip it? Because there are several ways he could skip it or opt for "servizio civile" instead, it depends on what you want him to do...
I've had several friends skip it for medical reasons and they weren't chronic conditions: one had a minor heart difect (some kind of arythmia or something like that), one was underweight, and another one had a sever astigmatism such that it couldn't be 100% corrected with lenses. So those are a few options for you.

Brasi sounds realistic to me, and I like how Luca Brasi sounds. You can have him have some minor medical thing and he'd skip. For somebody born in 1978 it was mandatory, so unless he didn't pass the medical test or he'd opt out, he'd be in. If he opted for servizio civile he'd be doing some other mandatory time in some non-military organization, I forget the details on that. It doesn't have to be a big thing, really. Does he wear glasses? Maybe he could have the slight heart arythmia? My friend leads a pretty normal life and you would never have guessed he had the arythmia....

Not to rain on your parade or anything, but Luca Brasi is a character in Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Not that it makes your name any less usable, I just thought you should know.