An early try from Gloucester wing Jonny May put England on their way while 11 points from Kingsholm team-mate Freddie Burns kept the scoreboard ticking.

Tommaso Iannone put Italy on the board with a penalty before converting Filippo Ferrarini try late on as Italy added some respectability to the scoreline.

But it could have been so different had Iannone not missed a penalty in the first half while England were put on the back foot when centre Tom Casson was sin-binned in the second half but they managed to hang on.

Mark Mapletoft's men had kicked off their RBS 6 Nations campaign with a stunning five-try 41-14 demolition of Wales and another big score looked on the cards early on.

England opened the scoring after three minutes when May traded passes with Danny Wright to score under the posts with Burns adding the extras.

The Azzurri squandered a chance to score when Iannone mishit his penalty wide after 24 minutes but made it 7-3 on the stroke of half time as England's error count continued to rise.

The visitors threatened to press the panic button in the second half when Casson was yellow carded for flopping over the ball at a ruck.

But England held on resolutely and three penalties from the trusty boot of Burns eased the pressure on the favourites.

Ferrarini's try reduced the deficit but England had done just enough to pick up the victory.