marseilles is conveniently located two moves away from any other foreign starting point. The best part of it is that no person playing italy would ever in their right mind move away from venice for fear of being attacked by trieste. Munich may try to move to burgundy in turn 1 so it is also smart for paris to move into burgundy to buy some time for marseilles.
That move will in itself give marseilles the time to take control of spain and portugal, giving you the chance to rebuild in your home centers with adequate coverage and a great standpoint from which to attack italy in year two.