First internship hunt at small PE firm - need advice

Hello everyone,

first some basic info: I am a second-year undergrad at italian target, wanting to break into IB. Since I have pretty much zero work experience, this summer I wanted to intern at a small PE shop in Milan. My plan is to cold email every firm I can possibly find.

My question is, how do I structure my email? Do I highlight the fact that even though I don't have work experience I am highly motivated, or better not? Also, a vast number of these firms are founded/run by alumni of my uni, so how can I leverage that in the email to get a high response rate?

Lastly, since I'm not that proficient in modeling, so should I pick up a course asap and mention it in the email? or it is not strictly necessary that I know it since an intern won't probably make financial models? Let me know what you think.

Thank you for the attention