Lively time penning Italian article (5)
I believe the answer is:
agile
'lively' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'time penning italian article' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 'age' (an age is a period of time).
'penning' is an insertion indicator.
'italian article' becomes 'il' (the definite article in Italian).
'age' placed around 'il' is 'AGILE'.
(Other definitions for agile that I've seen before include "Nimble, lithe" , "Nimble, spry" , "Dexterous" , "Spry - energetic" , "Nimble, lively" .)