Friend of disheartened Italian department head in Lazio notes it's the same either way (10)
I believe the answer is:
palindrome
'lazio notes it's the same either way' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'friend of disheartened italian department head in' is the wordplay.
'friend' becomes 'pal' (pal can mean a friend).
'of' becomes 'o''.
'disheartened' means to remove the middle letters (the middle or heart is removed).
'department head' becomes 'drme' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'italian' with its centre removed is 'in'.
'in'+'drme'='indrme'
'o' going within 'indrme' is 'indrome'.
'pal'+'indrome'='PALINDROME'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for palindrome that I've seen before include "Mum, Dad or Sis" , "Mum, perhaps" , "E.g. mum, dad" , "Word as kayak, refer" , "Word reading same forwards and back" .)