The Italians stumbled onto the idea of an angled flight deck
The Italians wanted more space to fit aircraft and the angled deck gave more flexibility to operate aircraft with longer wingspan .
As they were converting a paddle steamer the paddle sponsons gave more width to support an angled deck .
Someone had an epiphany on how to get more capacity on a smaller hull by angling the deck.
The Italians being fairly new to carriers didn't have any burden of tradition to overcome .