Affair of party of S Africans in Italian city (7)
I believe the answer is:
romance
'affair' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'party of s africans in italian city' is the wordplay.
'party of s africans' becomes 'anc' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'italian city' becomes 'Rome' (city in Italy).
'anc' put inside 'rome' is 'ROMANCE'.
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for romance that I've seen before include "Court" , "Group of languages" , "Sentimental affair in Menorca" , "Make up stories - Menorca (anag)" , "Affair of the heart" .)