If you mean Italian meringue butter cream, I use it exclusively. Even when I cover a cake in fondant I use it underneath, but it does have to be chilled.
It tastes just like Swiss meringue butter cream, the only difference between the two is the method of whipping the egg whites. So if you don't like SMBC you won't like the Italian but I find most people have never had a cooked butter cream and when they do taste it they love it's velvety texture...don't get me started on the chocolate version.
You will find that some people LOVE italian meringue buttercream, some people don't care for it, they prefer a powdered sugar frosting. Count me amongst the LOVES. I can't get enough of it. As ras3 mentioned, it is great under fondant and you can apply a full coat of buttercream too, just chill the cake until the bc is rock-hard and then apply the fondant.
I too would use a pastry brush or soft towel to wipe away the PS. If its' really resistant you can use a damp towel but you must be careful or the moisture can create streaks.
Yes, you could use either. Although I think what I meant when I typed buttercream was that I was referring to the italian meringue buttercream (IMBC), which is the long fancy term for Italian Meringue 
. I doubt you would use "both" IMBC and normal BC on the cake unless of course one of them was the filling.
Here's a thread I wrote about using icing under fondant; the first three cakes I photographed were iced in a normal layer of IMBC, chilled until firm, and then covered in fondant. http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-673052.html
Hi mommynana - I'm glad to help.
For MMF I use Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant from here in the recipe section. A simpler recipe is also fine, I can't remember what it's called here in the recipe section but it pretty much just amounts to marshmallows, water, and powdered sugar (with some shortening to grease the bowl) so you can look for that one too.
A tastier fondant which gets less sweaty if you decide to refrigerate it is "MFF" Michele Foster's Fondant, also in the recipes section, although if you are a first timer you may prefer to stick with the marshmallow version. Her recipe is really simple and just involves nuking a bunch of stuff in a glass measuring cup...but I admit that nuking ONLY marshmallows is simpler 
.
If you don't mind picking up some glycerin in your Wilton aisle, you can make MacsMom's fondant which is essentially the Rhonda's MMF recipe plus glycerin.
For IMBC I love the Rose Levy Berenbaum/Cake Bible "Mousseline Buttercream" recipe. Here's a link to it: http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Mousseline-Buttercream-45835
Ignore the last tip "Allow to come to room temperature completely before rebeating to restore texture or it will break down irretrievably." well - letting it come to room temp is correct, but "irretrievably" is totally NOT true. If you beat IMBC that is too cold, it will break apart into a curdly mess but guess what, all you have to do is warm it up slowly and it will come back together! I run my hands under hot water and wrap em around the bowl. Similarly if it is too WARM it will turn into soup. I almost threw that out once but rechilling it (a LOT) and then beating it also returned it to normal. You can almost ALWAYS retrieve your IMBC! I am so glad I ignored that part of the instructions!
Here are some great tips on smoothing IMBC from Antonia74 (scroll down to find her post http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-661033-plastering.html). I know you are planning on using fondant but I still like to smooth my IMBC before chilling the cake and applying fondant.
Hey I didn't even notice that it said that!
The answer to that question will vary depending upon who you speak to. I always refrigerate my IMBC cakes, but I know of several CCers who do not refrigerate them. I would THINK that if it says 2 days then it will be fine if you are off by a few hours, but personally I wouldn't go that route unless I used pasteurized egg whites (liquid or powdered)...which I always do anyway. I know that at least some of the CCers who don't refrigerate use the SMBC method, where the egg whites are cooked to safe temp in the pan. I always end up scrambling my eggs using the SMBC technique 
so I stick with IMBC.
And THAT'S a whole 'nother topic - i.e. the issue of whether or not the ew are cooked to safe temp when the hot sugar syrup is poured into the whites. I am not a risk taker, especially when it comes to peoples' health, so I always use pasteurized. I have found that most generic brands of liquid egg whites work great, but I have problems getting Just Whites to whip up into peaks.
Italian Meringue and Italian Meringue Buttercream are TWO DIFFERENT things!
Italian Meringue is egg whites whipped with a hot sugar syrup. It is also known as 7-minute frosting.
Italian Meringue Buttercream, starts with an Italian Meringue and adds room temp unsalted butter.
Both can be used to frost cakes, but only IMBC can be used for decorating or under fondant. Italian Meringue must absolutely be refrigerated. There is some debate as to whether IMBC can be, although most come down on the side of refrigerated to be safe, especially if not using pasturized powdered egg whites.
Yes, you can absolutely freeze IMBC. It lasts anywhere from 3-6 months; who knows...maybe longer, depending on your freezer. I prefer to make it fresh and use Antonia74's smoothing instructions as I am concerned about beating air into it, but when I have leftovers I absolutely freeze and reuse it.
Marshmallows aren't used in IMBC.... 
Here are Antonia74's instructions http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-661033.html - hers is the 4th post. If you look at some of my oldest cakes in my gallery, I tried smoothing my IMBC cakes using the hot spatula method and they look pretty crummy. Then, starting with the Surfin' Santa cake, I used her technique. OMG what a difference, not only in results but also in EASE which was the part I didn't expect. Try it, you'll love it! I prefer to put it onto my cake with an icer tip which also sounded like a PITA but in reality simplified the process.
As for marshmallows, if you don't have a kitchen scale...well, get one. LOL. If that's not an option then just get two 10.5 bags and you can split one bag in half by estimating...either that or calculate the remainder of the ingredients at 2/3 of the original recipe since the 10.5oz bag is 2/3 of 16oz.
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