Top seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta ground out a 6-4, 7-5 victory against Lucie Hradecka before Francesca Schiavone thrashed Czech number one Lucie Safarova 6-0, 6-2 on the Roman clay.
Should Italy progress to the final, they will meet either the USA, their beaten opponents in last year's title match, or Russia, the team who defeated them in 2007.
Aiming for their fourth final in five years, Italy was off to the perfect start despite the brief inconvenience of a rain delay.
Pennetta took her time to get going and slumped to a 4-1 first set deficit before turning it around with five games on the trot.
Incredibly, the second set followed an almost identical pattern; with world number 15 Pennetta again going down 4-1 before hitting back to win that 7-5.
The second singles rubber was a walk in the park for Schiavone, two places below her compatriot in the world rankings, as the world number 38 Safarova offered almost no resistance.
The pair will swap opponents on Sunday and if the Czechs mount an unlikely comeback a doubles rubber will be needed, in which Italy can field Roberta Vinci, who has never lost a Fed Cup doubles match.
In Frankfurt, Germany and France have each grabbed one point in their World Group playoffs showdown.
Germany's top seed Andrea Petkovic gave the hosts the lead Saturday with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 victory over France No.
2 Pauline Parmentier in Frankfurt's Palmengarten venue.
Petkovic bounced back from losing both rubbers in a first-round loss to the Czech Republic in February in her first Fed Cup action.
France No. 1 Aravane Rezai dropped her first set in the second singles against Tatjana Malek but the Frenchwoman came back to even the tie with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 win in 1 hour, 32 minutes.
In Belgrade, Daniela Hantuchova has defeated Bojana Jovanovski 6-2, 6-2 as Slovakia tied Serbia 1-1 in a World Group playoff.
Serbia initially led 1-0 after the Jelena Jankovic defeated Magdalena Rybarikova 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the first singles match Saturday.
Reverse singles and a doubles match will be played on Sunday.
The seventh-ranked Jankovic said after the match she had a wrist injury but it was "important that I won this point for Serbia." Jankovic left 3-0 in the opening set before Rybarikova rallied. The Serb wasted two match points at 5-2 in the second set.
Jovanovski fought hard against far more experienced Hantuchova. Hantuchova wasted one match point at 5-2 in the second set but finished the match with the next.
The losing team will drop out of the Fed Cup World Group.
In Hasselt, BelgiumKim Clijsters has easily beaten Maret Ani to help Belgium sweep the opening singles matches against Estonia in the other playoff.
Clijsters won 6-4, 6-2 in Saturday's match, despite needing treatment on her left foot during the second set.
Yanina Wickmayer then overcame Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 to put the host one win away from clinching a spot in next year's World Group.
The reverse singles are played Sunday, followed by a potentially decisive doubles match.
Belgium's Justine Henin had to pull out of the singles because of a broken finger.
