...or brain matter.
As you know, Marshall Pietro Badoglio, commander in chief of the Italian Army and Italian dictator following the inner coup against Mussolini in July of 1943, quickly proceeded to sign an armistice with the allies on September of that year, with support from the King and presumably the members of the Fascist government that had acted against Mussolini...
Now, in the great comedy of errors that was the Italian and Roman campaigns of 1943-1944, the news of the armistice were made public before the Italian army was actually informed, adding to a confusion only worsened when Badoglio, the King and several minister escaped to the allied-occupied portions of Italy without as much as issuing one single army to his troops...
This left 55 Italian divisions, IIRC, confused and without orders, easy prey for a German army that had less than a 1,000 men in Rome for police operations...
But...what if Pietro Badoglio had been able to inform his men and the entire Italian army of the armistice? could those 55 Italian divisions prevent the Germans from occupying Rome and reinforcing Italy?
Could Italy have a role in the Italian campaign other than being a stage and supplying victims and partisans?
And of course, could Marshal Badoglio maintain his influence in Italian politics following the war, ala deGaulle? and how would the post-war be with Italy having played a vital role in the war for the allies, having joined them in late 1943?