I’m sending you a private reply about your question, because I can’t get the italic commands to display. They want to disappear, as they normally would when you’re giving that ‘command’. If you get the private reply, and the italic commands appear, why not try it out responding to this post?
Pssst! little secret. Put a space between the < and the i> like this < i>and it will show up. But when you want to use it the proper way close in the space.