Ends an academic period in Italian capital (7)
I believe the answer is:
termini
'ends' is the definition.
(terminus is a kind of end)
'an academic period in italian capital' is the wordplay.
'an academic period' becomes 'term' (I've seen this before).
'capital' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'italian' is 'i'.
'term'+'in'+'i'='TERMINI'
(Other definitions for termini that I've seen before include "Interim (anag.)" , "Final parts" , "End stations" , "Starting points, limits" , "ends of lines" .)