A penalty try and yellow cards for Niccolo Cannone and Danilo Fischetti left Italy chasing the game and the interval brought about a change in their approach.
"We got back into the changing room and we said we screwed it up and we handled it, just embraced the challenge," captain Michele Lamaro said.
"I think we stepped back into the field with confidence, you know, stick together every single moment, win the little battles to win the final war."
Coach Kieran Crowley was disappointed with Italy's poor discipline but praised his defence for holding out.
"You can't afford two players off the field. One of them was just ill-discipline, the second one you could argue but the referee made the decision so no problem," Crowley said.
"But you know, we’ve got to be better than that because you're going to give away points.
"It was a hell of an effort from them because we only gave away seven points with 13 players so you know that defence was pretty good."
Two wins from their opening two games, along with two bonus points set Italy up nicely for their remaining fixtures with New Zealand and France.
"I think we've got 10 points, if you asked me before to have 10 points after two games I would have taken it," Lamaro said.
"It's unbelievable the energy this group has, the way we are together the way we live together. It's something unbelievable."
Lamaro also had plenty of praise for Italy's opponents.
"I told all the Uruguayan guys they can be proud of their performance, they put us under a lot of pressure but in these moments, what counts the most is how strong is the team and in the second half we showed that and smashed everything we could."
"This is a real group, we're a family. It was a really tough game."
Italy now have time to recover before they take on New Zealand on September 29th. For now, the Azzurri and their captain will enjoy what they have already achieved.
"It's unbelievable. I am young but without all these players, I couldn't do anything. I'm really proud of the boys and I'll share this moment for the rest of my life with them."
Uruguayan dreams dashed
Uruguay said they had "dreamed big" about their World Cup clash with Italy and for 40 minutes it looked as if they might come true but their fitness and lack of experience told heavily.
Of all the minnows in the tournament, Uruguay have probably had the hardest time preparing. Before last week's 27-12 defeat by France, they had faced Tier One opposition only once since the 2019 World Cup and played only four internationals of any sort this year.
They won admirers with a battling defeat against the hosts last week but had half a chance of pulling off one of the great World Cup upsets in Nice. It all went quickly wrong, though.
"It's quite frustrating to be honest," said flanker Santiago Civetta.
"We dreamed really big about this match and big dreams sometimes come true, sometimes they don’t.
"It was a really epic battle, we gave the best we could. We made more mistakes than we wanted and Italy knew how to exploit them. But we gave our best effort and we need to keep working for our two remaining matches."
Coach Esteban Meneses said he was immensely proud of his players, who were out on their feet in the final stages.
"We came here to make history but Italy played very well in the second half and congratulations to them," he said.
"Our targets were Italy and Namibia, so now it's Namibia."
The two Pool A outsiders meet in Lyon next Wednesday, before Uruguay sign off against New Zealand.
