Speaking of the devil, here is an interesting video, and they talk a bit of the Italians too.
If I understand it correctly, they say that the re-balance of the Italians had its effect, and they now are a bit weaker on water but more solid on land, basing on the win-rate data (that aren’t yet on aoestats, so it’s probably something that only devs have).
But I also think, that he may implied that it’s not there yet, but this could be just my imagination.
They also kind of describe how they balance civs, which is interesting.