If Louis XVI attempts it and succeeds, Italy would be united with France.
If Louis XVI attempts it and succeeds, Italy would be united with France.
Why going around europe?
there were a few Bourbons in charge in italy.
Naples king (who alone ruled about 1/3 of italian territory) was one
If the young Bavarian prince who had been designated Carlos of Spain's heir had not died in 1699, we might avoid the War of the Spanish Succession and see the Partition Treaty arranged by Britain, France, and Austria come into force. I believe it granted Louis XIV's son Naples, Sicily, and Tuscany, as well as Lorraine and Bar, which the Duke of Lorraine would trade for Milan, while the Austrians gained the low countries. Assuming the Dauphin spins off his Italian dominions and hands them over to his younger sons (one receiving Naples and Sicily, the other Tuscany upon the extinction of the Medici), it would set up the stage for a potential unified Italy under the Bourbons.
When Charles III took Naples and Sicily from Austria during the War of Polish Succession, he could have feasibly pressed his claim to be the rightful heir to the Tuscan throne, his mother was the senior heir to Gian Gastone the last Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany, through her descent from Cosimo II. He certainly would have received French and Spanish support. Had it been a condition of France and Spain's acceptance of Austria's pragmatic sanction, the War of Austrian Succession could have been avoided aswell. From there a series of fortuitious marriages could have brought most of Italy under heel. Modena passing to Maria-Beatrice d'Este could have been married to Charles' son, their son could then have married a daughter of Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia. Since Victor had no sons and the Bourbons would now be in a strong position they could possibly manage to claim the Sardinian throne through her. Corsica could have been bought, Genoa and Venice ceeded after the Nepoleonic Wars. Thus uniting Italy dynastically by 1824 on the death of Victor.