I do not know exactly what it took, back then, to order an "unusual" Olivetti (math, French or German or English..) but surely it took a lot of time as there are some loitering around in Italy but those mostly appear to have been taken back home from nearby foreign countries or bought in non-Italian speaking areas in Italy (like Alto-Adige/ Tirol). There you can find most Olympias and Hermes on sale in Italy, and surprise surprise many have QWERTZ keyboards.
Also, I noticed most 'English' QWERTY machines offered for sale are from south of Italy and Naples in particular (areas with a high proportion of inhabitants that worked in the USA or, in Naples, worked there with North-Americans or are American themselves, think sixth-fleet suppliers and the like) so mostly not ordered from Olivetti as such, even if they are Olivetti machines. Surely ordering an ad-hoc machine in Italy was difficult.
But what people could find sloow or too expensive, importers and manufacturers could have turned into perspective sales. Olivetti had a strong presence in 'foreign' markets in general and the USA in particular, that absorbed most of its more exotic and expensive products, mind goes to the Programma 101 that have been sold mostly in the USA. Given the fact that areas with a relevant number of spanish-speaking people in the USA are diverse, some rich and enormous (think Florida, Texas, Southern California just for a start) maybe a demand showed itself. The presence of the £ (pound) character could be explained by the practical need to avoid casting new typefaces and to avoid changing keys positions on the keyboard, and also to avoid having the same character appear twice (thus the pound on the Shift-5 was carried over from one already available key on a possible valid position).