Except for the land Austria sits on which rightfully belongs to us, but we'll bother about that later. So, now we've conquered Rome and everything north thereof. The Papal States are too large to be annexed in one bit, so that'll take two wars. Unless another power intervenes (unlikely, but check the independence guarantees on your enemies just in case), you should have annexed everything north of Rome in a year or two. Don't bargain with anyone, annex outright! Put farmer and labourer POPs from the newly annexed lands into uniform to replenish divisions that have suffered casualties, and keep the steamroller going. Waste no time, put the closest enemy states under the iron boot before others arrive at the scene. Expenses be damned, that's what we've sold land to France for! Line up along the border, declare war, and avanti! You'll be in a war with everyone on the peninsula save Two Sicilies (as well as possibly some alliance-breaking cowards). Five divisions with guard brigades should be enough, but five reserve divisions are a nice thing to have, too. Now, use the money you've got from selling provinces to France to prepare for war. We can't afford to think overly of the long run right now, not before we've mopped up a few minors. Taking a naval tech simply slows down your own, more important research. Don't take a tech just "because you can". Get army techs if you can, industry techs second. Each province should give you tens of thousands of pounds (I've got 40,000 for Nice at best!) as well as a tech or two. Sell them one at a time, waiting awhile after each trade to let France get some money to pay you with. What more? Well, France not only wants them, but is prepared to pay very well for them, too. None of those provinces are important for unification, either. Remember those three provinces France has territorial claims on? Furthermore, selling them makes sure we stay friends with France, we don't want them going to war over them (as often seems to happen when both France and Sardinia-Piedmont are AI-controlled). How do we overpower the alliance of minors controlling northern Italy? We will talk to our good friend France.
#Sardinia piedmont europa universalis 5 Patch
Fortunately, since patch 1.03, we don't have to, we can just occupy (not necessarily own, mind you) the necessary provinces (Rome, Florence, Parma, Modena, Torino, and Naples if you're interested), firing off an event unifying Italy, auto-annexing the last Italian minors and gaining you the great prize unification brings - South Italian as a state culture in addition to the North Italian you start with!
There is a chain of events allowing unification of Italy by the historical route, but we won't be waiting until the 1850s for it to take place. This country has a few advantages to compensate, which carefully utilized can allow one to outgrow and overpower the surrounding great powers. However, things are not necessarily as bad as they look. And after unifying Italy, there's an Austria-Hungary who often likes to meddle in Italian affairs to be wary of.
The rest of Italy seems sufficiently divided, but those minors have pesky alliances making for obstacles on the path to glory. France looms in the west, with territorial claims on three of your provinces. Piedmont is relatively populous, but it's still only one state. At first, Sardinia-Piedmont's position doesn't look too assuring.