Key to the Italian girl's predicament (7)
I believe the answer is:
dilemma
'predicament' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'key to the italian girl's' is the wordplay.
'key' becomes 'd' (I've seen this in other clues).
'to the italian' becomes 'il' (the in Italian).
'girl' becomes 'emma' (**).
'd'+'il'+'emma'='DILEMMA'
(Other definitions for dilemma that I've seen before include "I lammed away to find perplexing situation" , "Dim male (anag.)" , "Difficult-choice situation" , "tricky position" , "Situation requiring a choice between (equally unpleasant) options" .)