The fullback brought the Murrayfield crowd to their feet with one of four tries scored by the lively back division of the Scots, who ended a poor run of four straight losses to revive their campaign.
Centres Matt Scott and Sean Lamont and winger Tim Visser also went over while Greig Laidlaw kicked 14 points as the error-prone Azzurri were blown away, a week after producing one of their greatest displays to beat the pre-tournament favourites France.
The Italians couldn't match a fired-up Scottish team desperate to make up for the 38-18 loss to England the previous weekend, with the visitor's only try coming from flanker Alessandro Zanni late on.
Stuart Hogg's interception in the 48th minute was the game's highlight, when he read Luciano Orquera's inside pass to burst upfield from inside his own 22 and score his second try of the tournament.
Yet interim coach Scott Johnson will be more happy with the creativity that led to Visser's score in the left corner in the 29th and then Scott's well-worked try off lineout ball in the 43rd. That made it 20-3 and effectively wrapped up the victory.
"I liked the intent from our boys," Johnson said. "We spoke about the contact area all week and straight from the start we were aggressive and turned over the ball. We had our chances and scored from them."
Scotland turned around at halftime 13-3 ahead, dominating the breakdown and forcing sloppy handling errors from Italy.
Visser added to Laidlaw's two early penalties by taking a fine pass from Glasgow's Ruaridh Jackson, cutting inside Sergio Parisse off his left foot and powering over the line.
Orquera's penalty on the stroke of halftime gave the Italians some hope but they were undone by two Scotland tries in the space of five minutes just after the restart.
Glasgow winger Sean Maitland came crashing into the line to pop up a pass for Scott, who raced past covering fullback Andrea Masi. Then Hogg enhanced his growing reputation - that could even lead to a call-up by the British and Irish Lions this summer - with his try.
Sean Lamont picked a loose ball up from a ruck to canter over unchallenged in the 68th for his ninth international try as the match threatened to turn into a rout.
Zanni's try five minutes later gave the Italians some consolation but they were well beaten.