The 45-year-old partner of 50-year-old woman who was killed on Monday in Bondeno, in the northern province of Ferrara, is suspected of the murder and has been detained.
Prosecutors said the man gave a "contradictory" version of events.
The case looks set to be only the latest in a long string of femicides in Italy that shows no signs of stopping.
On Monday a 39-year-old farmer from a village near Trento on killed his 42-year-old wife with a hatchet blow to the neck and then tried to kill himself with the same weapon.
A 20-year-old student is seriously ill in hospital, meanwhile, after being stabbed by her former boyfriend in Turin.
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