You might be interested in these older answers of mine:

This answer on the relationship between Italy and the United States in the immediate postwar era: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7ajx7u/why_wasnt_italy_subjected_to_political_division/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

This answer on Soviet influence in Italy: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/d01jh4/soviet_influence_in_italy_postwar/

This other answer on extremist violence on Italy: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/aarz3c/during_the_years_of_lead_in_italy_when_communist/

This last answer on collaboration between the Italian Communist Party and the ruling Christian Democracy Party: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6slsf0/where_did_the_years_of_lead_get_their_name_from/dm2xaoy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

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Italy had a strange role in the Cold War: the catholic and conservative ruling class saw maintaining an Atlanticist alignment (that is to say, affiliation with NATO and the United States) as an immovable policy objective, while the social and political opposition proposed a shifting series of policies which could even include advocating alignment with the Soviet Union.

Italy was (and still is) home to NATO (principally American) military bases. While the prospects of the Cold War “heating up” fluctuated through the years and decades, NATO doctrine nonetheless saw Northeast Italy as a strategic bulwark against a possible Soviet-led offensive. But as years of nuclear proliferation raised the profile of missile systems, strategic bombing, and proxy conflicts, it reduced the importance of guarding against the prospect of Russian tanks rolling across the River Isonzo (Italy’s natural eastern border) the Italian establishment continued to be dependent on cold war rhetoric in order justify its policies, stances, and conservativism. More than Italy playing a part in the Cold War, the Cold War played a part in the Italian political and social narrative.

Between 1946 and 1981, the Christian Democracy party managed uninterrupted control of the Italian government. Sure, the other parties entered and exited governing coalitions following elections and intervening reshuffles, but 35 years of uninterrupted control of the highest offices of state is a record which even iron-fisted dictatorships can find hard to beat. One of the defining, and longest lasting, political talking-points of the Christian Democrats was the urgent and unceasing message that the country was on the brink of a communist revolution.

There was a brief window in 1946, when the country was holding its first free election in twenty years, where a Communist revolution might indeed have been possible. The closing years of the Second World War had not been easy for Italians, as they suffered famine, foreign military occupation, and a brutal civil war. Countless families were homeless, living in shantytowns outside bombed cities. What industries hadn’t been destroyed were subject to endemic strikes and even collectivization (some collectivizations had even been carried out on the initiative of the fascist rump-state). At the war’s end entire cities were in the hands of armed partisan militias, many (but not all) of which counted communist agitators in their leadership and among their ranks; several has even received small but perceptible amounts of aid from the Soviet Union. By the time 1946 rolled around they had set aside their arms, but there was nonetheless a tangible fear they would take them up again and no one would be able to stop them, especially as the country’s security apparatus had been pulverized over the course of the war and had not yet been rebuilt.

After the 1946 election the Italian Communist Party was invited to Italy’s governing coalition, and the communists has significant influence in writing of the country’s new constitution. Beyond the sentiment that their supporters had soviet-made weapons in their closets, they had also been legitimized by 18% of the national vote garnered during the election. The Communist Party was flanked in many of its positions by the Socialist Party, who had earned little over 20% of the vote (a result they would never top, mainly due to a propensity for infighting) while the Christian Democrats registered 35% of the vote. However, as it became apparent that the Communist Party leadership was unable or unwilling to stage an armed revolution, by the spring of 1947 the Christian Democrats were able to force a reshuffle and assembled a governing coalition without the communists. The Italian Communist Party would never again take part in the country’s government. Leveraging the Communists exclusion was cause and consequence of Italy being able to receive funding from the United States’ Marshall Plan, creating lasting ties between American aid agencies, American industry, and the Italian economy.

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There is more to be said of the relationship between the Soviet Union and the Italian Communist party, which I have elaborated on in a reply to this post.