Animal finding fruit by river in Italy (5)
I believe the answer is:
hippo
'animal' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'fruit by river in italy' is the wordplay.
'fruit' becomes 'hip' (fruit of a rose plant).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'river in italy' becomes 'po' (Italian river).
'hip'+'po'='HIPPO'
'finding' is the link.
(Other definitions for hippo that I've seen before include "Augustine's place" , "Thick-skinned type" , "Wallowing mammal" , "Large animal" , "Large wallower (abbr)" .)