If you are seeing that much of a match, she is related, but by what degree is the question? Also since you have no way to separate Father/Mother's side with autosomal, her % Italian Heritage likely is via your Mother's side but it could also be someone on your Father's side had a child out of wedlock with someone who was of strong Italian heritage.
Lot's of families and people have skeletons in the closet that were not disclosed, whether that be children born out of wedlock and given up for adoption or etc..I long suspected that I may have a 1/2 brother or sister in Germany, since my Father lived in Germany during his time in the service and left in a hurry, came back to the US then finished his term and was in a serious relationship at the time with a German national.
I have no evidence and no matches have shown on any site or Gedmatch, but it doesn't mean it's not the case...people keep secrets especially that generation where it was taboo or frowned upon.
DNA can tie together people, but it can't pull connections out of thin air unless the % of people tested is higher. Given all the concerns over privacy, being cloned or wrongly accused of a crime, many will never be tested and some will never know anything and maybe they are okay with that, then you figure in those of us who have little surviving parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and etc. to test or won't test...
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