If Italians will need a buff in the next patch, the reason will probably their slow early game. If the win rate does not improve, I would prefer an early game buff.
For example, market, blacksmith, university, monastery are available 1 age earlier. But the techs and units (monks+ trade carts) are not. You can build Market and Blacksmith in Dark age and save some time. This allows earlier resource interchange and potentially earlier age up. University and Monastery can be built in Feudal age. You can research ballistics earlier. I think this is historically correct. But I am wondering how influential this buff would be.