Italy does not have the potential to become as powerful as a Napoleonic "super France" or as a France which manages to evolve and reforms itself instead of undergoing revolutions.
It can however easily become as powerful if not powerful than present day or Third Republic France if the right decisions are taken during the 19th century. The earlier the unification is, the better things would be but the rule of the law and effective governmental institutions will have to be built at the same time.
Economically, Italy geographic position is not as good as France, but much easier to turn into an asset, since there won't be any conflicts like "Atlantic or Mediterranean, Europe or the Oceans" which plagued and still plague French decision making and strategic outlook. If Italy manages to get her hand on Tunisia, Libya and Eastern Algeria, she will be a position to effectively control the entire Mediterranean bassin, including all the east-west trade routes. Securing Eritrea and Somalia would complement this very nicely, since Italy would in a way control two of the world busiests maritime and trade crossroads. The key will however be to extract as much value as possible from these geographical and political assets. Southern Italy will have to become the entryway to central and northern Europe from the south, for Italy to really leverage her geographical position in economic success. Unlike our history, the Italian railway network will have to have very strong and resilient north-south links. The aim should be that unloading goods in Taranto and railing them to Munich or Breslau, takes less time that shipping them to Trieste and the railing them, or even than going all the way around Europe to Antwerpen or to Hamburg.
A problem I see facing Italy especially for massive industrialisation to take place, will be the lack of combustible fuels, especially coal. Importing from Germany or Central Europe will only be good to a degree and places Italy in a position of weakness. Alpine dams and hydroelectricity won't come online until the late 19th century if not early 20th century, so there is a bottleneck there and one which needs to be solved. France faced the same issues, but had plenty of foresets to burn and large rivers to exploit then nuclear power came and made shortages a thing of the past.
Anothing highly important thing which Italy must do, is not to "waste" her sons and daughters by shipping them over to America for want or for lack of alternatives. If Emigration takes place, it should be directed towards settlements colonies in North Africa and the African horn. Easier said than done I know, but even if just 10% of the migrants go to Africa instead of America it will be enough to plant a seed there.
Eurofed what do you think?