Old Italian backing excellent country (7)
I believe the answer is:
romania
'country' is the definition.
(European country)
'old italian backing excellent' is the wordplay.
'old italian' becomes 'roman' (I've seen this before).
'backing' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'excellent' becomes 'ai' (resembles 'A1', old-fashioned term for excellent).
'ai' written backwards gives 'ia'.
'roman'+'ia'='ROMANIA'
(Other definitions for romania that I've seen before include "Balkan country" , "Oman air in the eastern European state" , "EU country" , "East European country" , "Country in SE Europe" .)