The loss of captain Rachel Malcolm to injury shortly before kick-off may have played on the minds of the Scottish players as they failed to come out the blocks.
Italy were not in the mood to wait around and prop Zanette crashed over on her first Test start to stretch the home side’s lead.
It took 25 minutes for the Scots to muster an entry into the Italian 22, only to be turned over as they worked their way towards the try line.
A wonderful break up the touchline from D’Inca left the Scottish defence scrambling and Zanette took advantage of the chaos to plough over for her second try, Italy’s third.
They wrapped up the bonus point when Veronica Madia spun a beautiful pass out wide for D’Inca to dive over in the corner for her second score.
Italy were cooking, Scotland were floundering and a slick backline move cut the visitors open as Muzzo steamed on to a clever inside ball from Madia to go in under the sticks and effectively end the contest before half-time.
The traffic continued to flow only one way after the break and hooker Vecchini was able to touch down after an Italian lineout maul powered over the Scottish line.
Yellow cards for Madia and Elisa Giordano temporarily reduced Italy to 13 players and finally Scotland managed to land a blow when Skeldon, captain in the place of the injured Malcolm, finished off the rolling maul from close range.
Despite being two players down, Italy regained quickly regained the initiative and lock Duca blasted through to touch down under the posts.
A wonderful individual try from substitute Poolman raised a few Scottish smiles on an otherwise chastening day in the Italian sunshine.
