Italian Charlie provides stimulation (5)

I believe the answer is:

tonic

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'stimulation' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'italian charlie' is the wordplay.
'italian' becomes 'toni' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'charlie' becomes 'C' (phonetic alphabet).
'toni'+'c'='TONIC'

'provides' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tonic that I've seen before include "Important note" , "Small drink of spirits" , "Restorative that invigorates" , "something providing a boost" , "A pick-me-up drink, nice with gin" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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