Stress

1) Words of two or more syllables stressed on the last syllable bear a stress mark on the final vowel: "virtù, fedeltà, partì, pagherò"... ( virtue, fidelity, (s)he left, I'll pay...).

2) In a number of cases, the stress mark distinguishes pairs of words like "se - sè" ( if - self), "li - lì" ( them - there), "la - là" (art. f. sng. - there), "da - dà" ( from - gives), "si - sì" ( pron. - yes). In these and similar cases ther are no differences in pronunciation. The differences in "e - è" are described here .
There is a stress shift in "parti - partì" ( parts / you leave - (s)he left), "pero - però" ( pear tree - however) and several more.

3) The position of the word stress is to be learned word by word: nothing signals that "facile" ( easy) is stressed on the first syllable and "fucile" ( rifle) is stressed on the second. Anyway, the same also happens in Eng.

4) One consequence of rule no. 3 is that there are frequent mistakes in placing the stress correctly in saying such loanwords as "control, report, management, Bolivar"...

5) There are just a few cases where only the allows you to choose where to place the stress correctly. Examples (the position of the stress is signalled by capital letter): "ANcora - anCOra" ( anchor - again, more); "CApitano - capiTAno"... ( [they] happen - captain...).