Tuscany or Italy

[3wet6r]

So im currently playing as Tuscany, just won a war with Urbino, Aragon and Naples and have managed to get 3 provinces from naples and annexed Urbino, I was wondering what is better Italy or Tuscany also take this in account, I suck at getting tech and I always seem to be behind in tech by atleast 1 on everything. Also I have a question if I vassalise The Papal States and annex them will people ask me to make Rome and independant state?

[Kagemin]

Italy has strong ideas geared towards aggresive expansion (better relations over time, cheaper cores, some military boosts), while Tuscany is more rounded.
Hard to say which ones are stronger all in all, so I'd say it comes down to personal preference. The cheaper tech and ideas from Tuscan ideas will be nice if you have troubles keeping up in tech, but if you plan on expanding a lot the 25% cheaper cores from Italian ideas are huge too.

The claims on all of Italy can be nice, but also keep in mind that forming Italy as a Republic will turn you into a Despotic Monarchy.

As for Rome, as far as I know you will always be asked to give it back to the Papacy as long as you're Catholic.

[3wet6r]

Should I go protestant then because not only will that stop the rome thing but it has that 10% cheaper ideas and lack of hating heretics/heathens?

[Kagemin]

Currently being Catholic is only good if you have good control over the Curia. The basic modifiers for Catholic are pretty much garbage, while being the Curia controller is extremely strong.

If you have Wealth of Nations the fervor system allows you to be very versatile, depending on your situation it's about even with Protestant then. Also depends on how hard the reformation hit your lands.