Italy fly-half Paolo Garbisi will make his first appearance of this year's Guinness Six Nations as part of three changes for Saturday's match with Ireland.
Garbisi missed the opening two rounds of the championship due to a knee injury but is recalled in place of Harlequins' Tommaso Allan after returning to action for Montpellier last weekend.
The 22-year-old, who has played just once for his country so far this season, joins Gloucester's Stephen Varney in the half-back positions.
Pierre Bruno has been restored to the left wing for the clash in Rome, which pushes Tommaso Menoncello to inside centre, with Luca Morisi dropping to the bench.
The other change to Kieran Crowley's starting XV following the Azzurri's 31-14 round-two defeat to England sees Simone Ferrari come in for Marco Riccioni at tighthead prop.
Ange Capuozzo, World Rugby's breakthrough player of the year for 2022, continues at full-back.
Italy, who began the tournament with a narrow loss to France, are bidding for a first win over Ireland since a 22-15 success at Stadio Olimpico a decade ago.
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"Every match has a different story," said head coach Crowley, according to the Italian rugby federation website.
"We will face Ireland aware of what we did against France and England with the aim of improving in some areas that will make us more competitive.
"It will be a tough game against the number one team in the world and we too can't wait to face them."
Italy have four wins in 34 previous matches against Ireland, though their only success since 1999 came in Rome in 2013.
Andy Farrell, meanwhile, has made six changes to the Ireland side for the trip, with Bundee Aki, Ross Byrne, Craig Casey, Ronan Kelleher, Iain Henderson and Jack Conan all drafted in.
Italy: Ange Capuozzo; Edoardo Padovani, Juan Ignacio Brex, Tommaso Menoncello, Pierre Bruno; Paolo Garbisi, Stephen Varney; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Simone Ferrari; Niccolò Cannone, Federico Ruzza; Sebastian Negri, Michele Lamaro, Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: Luca Bigi, Federico Zani, Marco Riccioni, Edoardo Iachizzi, Giovanni Pettinelli, Alessandro Fusco, Luca Morisi, Tommaso Allan.
Watch live coverage of Italy v Ireland (Saturday 2.15pm) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app, or listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1.
Watch live coverage of France v Scotland (Sunday, 3pm) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
