The weekly said the espionage concentrated on three underwater fibre optic cables with terminals in Italy, the SeaMeWe3 and the SeaMeWe4 in Sicily and the Flag Europe Asia crossing the country.
"In this mass collection, our secret services had a role," the weekly said, citing journalist Glenn Greenwald, who sparked global controversy with his revelations based on US leaker Edward Snowden.
Snowden's documents showed that the Italian security services had a "third-level agreement" with Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), L'Espresso reported.
The spying was on "European governments, including the Italian one", Greenwald was quoted as saying.
