in my opinion it should be a defensive civilization, which like the Chinese, based on the buildings built, can change the government managed by the family in charge at that moment, with a strong economy, focused on gold, given that in Italy if you had some you could buy everything with gold, religion must be important, but with different management from the Holy Roman Empire. you should be able to place churches around your city, with the possibility of having changes in it, for example for each church, the radius of it, would allow the villagers to have gold, every Once the resources are placed, such as every 10 resources 1 gold, the church should provide a home for the villagers, so that they can take refuge inside it, it should be possible to create small fortresses, similar to those of the Sicilians on AOE2, of the larger Towers with the possibility of some bonuses, such as producing units ###### #### in exchange for gold etc., the grape fields should be present, given that wine was important in Italy, I think that city centers should be different from normal, they should allow the production of military units in exchange for gold, without stopping the production of villagers, obviously everything would make the civilization new and fresh, with the point of making everything original but balanced with other civilizations.
TC could be similar to this, with a large tower, which perhaps allows you to have more vision in the area.