Former Italian monetary unit (4)
I believe the answer is:
lira
'former italian monetary unit' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
This is all the clue.
(Other definitions for lira that I've seen before include "Old unit of Italian money" , "Former Italian currency unit" , "Unit of money for 26 across" , "Former unit of currency in Italy" , "Turkish currency" .)