Good to initially rescue a number of Italians in cave (6)
I believe the answer is:
grotto
'cave' is the definition.
(I know that cave can be written as grotto)
'good to initially rescue a number of italians' is the wordplay.
'good' becomes 'g' (abbreviation).
'to initially' says to take the initial letters.
'a number of italians' becomes 'otto' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The initial letter of 'rescue' is 'r'.
'g'+'r'+'otto'='GROTTO'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for grotto that I've seen before include "Artificially or naturally ornamented cave" , "Fancy cave" , "fancy underground area" , "Small picturesque cave" , "Small cave, perhaps with religious connotations" .)