Girl welcomes Italian friendship (5)
I believe the answer is:
amity
'friendship' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)
'girl welcomes italian' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'amy' (**).
'welcomes' means one lot of letters goes inside another (in sense of 'invites in').
'italian' becomes 'it'.
'amy' enclosing 'it' is 'AMITY'.
(Other definitions for amity that I've seen before include "Friendship - goodwill" , "Fellowship" , "Friendliness" , "warmth" , "Friendly feeling, fraternity" .)