Escape by a flight to part of Italy (5)

I believe the answer is:

hopit

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'escape by a flight' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'part of italy' is the wordplay.
'part of' becomes 'hop' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'italy' becomes 'it'.
'hop'+'it'='HOPIT'

'to' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for hopit that I've seen is " Go away".)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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