Venice 1622
I originally wanted to stay small, just my starting Italian provinces, Aquelia, Triol & Styria, and a few others
but the awesome missions just kept coming. Eventually I just went, 'screw it' and united Italy. Well, I still need Malta and Genoa. I have a lot of vassals surrounding me such as Wurttemburg, Silesia, Auveregne, Switzerland, etc.
I'm the tech leader for everything, have almost 300k manpower (I just finised a war so it's a little low in the picture). I'm a big trader, which makes up most of my income. The only reason I haven't annexed Genoa yet is because they have two cots, one being Genoa, and afiak non core cots ruin compete chances. I'm also the papal controller most of the time, which is nice. I only colonized a few islands (Cuba, Hispanola and Jamaica) so I can have a powerbase and CoT there.
I won't be forming Italy as I like Venice's colour better.