My ongoing game as Two Sicilies/Italian Empire:
One of the first things I did in the game, in around 1835, was to declare a war of conquest against Tuscany. The previous time I tried a game as the Two Sicilies, it was a total nightmare playing diplo influence drama with France and Austria in the 6 other Italian states, where you have to gain sphere AND acquire land in Austria to establish Italy. The Austrians joined the war, but they were also fighting the Danes, and not doing so well (or something). I managed to get right of passage with the Papal States, and after occupying Tuscany, I added my cores in Lombardy as a wargoal. It was a bitch to win the war, but I managed to occupy enough lands in Austria. The Austrians had a tendency to avoid direct confrontations, in favor of a long route through Bavaria and Switzerland... by which time I was able to destroy a number of Austrian armies in Tuscany suffering from attrition.
The Austrian War lasted about 3 1/2 years but I prevailed (it's possible the Austrians were also fighting someone other than Denmark/Holstein, but I stopped paying attention to that and just focused on keeping my front lines stable). I actually considered that war to be easier than the 8 year diplo influence game I played with France. Getting Italian states out of Austrian sphere was actually very easy (they didn't even try to stop me), but France's AI is EVIL when you try to get Sardinia/Papal States over to you. When they started matching my focus on Papal States, I'd switch to Sardinia. When they switched to match me, I switched to Switzerland (they sphered Switzerland). Eventually I got lucky and they started focusing somewhere else. Took 8 years of French BS, but I sphered Italy.
I saved up most of my research points during 1869 to get Machine Guns as soon as possible in 1870. I conquered Sokoto and Ethiopia during the 1860s to colonize 3 adjacent regions and get the ball rolling. Due to the fact I placed a brigade on the coastline of each uncolonized region in Africa, I was largely able to establish a dominant colonial position in Africa. The Germans did colonize Ghana and Warri, but they got involved in a war against France, the UK, Russia, Austria, the Ottomans, and a dozen small nations. Needless to say, France called for my support, and I was able to demand those colonial concessions.
I've spent most of the game consolidating my position, building a massive military, and keeping my navy updated (I've routinely destroyed old, obsolete ships while producing equal numbers of new, more powerful ones). I routinely keep my standings with UK, France, Russia, Germany, and America at 200. I have the Ottomans sphered, and if I see anyone putting influence points there, I ban their embassy, refocus my influence to the Ottomans to replenish my points, and then boost standings with the guy whose embassy I banned (90% of the time it's Russia trying to re-sphere Ottomans).
If you can manage to sphere Italy and gain Lombardy, playing Two Sicilies is really quite fun!