Gloucester's Marco Bortolami and Viadana's New Zealand-born Josh Sole come in at second row and blindside flanker respectively, with centre Masi being replaced by Gonzalo Canale, with Matteo Pratichetti taking his place on the bench.

Masi is suffering from a sore back while Del Fava and Derbyshire pulled out of the side earlier in the week having sustained muscular injuries in training.

Coach Nick Mallett has defended his request for the Millennium Stadium roof to be left open, despite a forecast of rain, and is keen for his side to start picking up points away from Rome following their 46-20 humbling at the hands of France in Paris last Sunday.

“I don't see why we should close the roof simply because it suits Wales,” he said. “It certainly doesn't suit Italy and we'd like to keep it open.

“We are building as a team and we want to start getting results away from Rome.

“We defended well in Australia and New Zealand last summer and France was a bit of a shock because we had not conceded many tries before that.”