Venice: Don't do A Ven-Tri. Please. We've seen it before. You and Austria will tie each other up long enough for France to get you and for Turkey to get Austria.
I heartily agree with Jim. Indeed I go further, if you can't get at the very worst a non-aggression pact with Austria then you'd better have good buddies in Russia and Turkey!! A firm alliance with Austria is a must for Italy to survive far into the middle game. A lot of the reason for this is that Italy has only one obvious capture in 1901, Tunis, that raises nobody's ire. France and Austria nearly always manage 2 each.
The trick is to divert attentions elsewhere, point out to France and Austria how little they stand to gain by attacking Italy, and what a bad idea it is for them to do this early in the game before England (for France) and Russia (for Austria) are subdued.
Regards,
Patrick Mullen