Accounts of phonetic properties of the italian orthography have been ... slightly exaggerated :-)
E.g. Italian has 5 written vowels, although (in many dialects, including standard Italian) if has 7 (the o in "corto" is not the same as in "cosa", and there are some words which would be allophones were it not for the different quality of the "e" vowel, like "pesca" which means peach with a phonetic ɛ/è vs fishery/inflection of the verb to fish, when with a phonetic e/é)
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The accent still remains, in the specific way each letter is pronounced and in the global intonation.
Italian has almost phonemic orthography, as well, yet the Italian accent can be quite noticeable.
Accounts of phonetic properties of the italian orthography have been ... slightly exaggerated :-)
E.g. Italian has 5 written vowels, although (in many dialects, including standard Italian) if has 7 (the o in "corto" is not the same as in "cosa", and there are some words which would be allophones were it not for the different quality of the "e" vowel, like "pesca" which means peach with a phonetic ɛ/è vs fishery/inflection of the verb to fish, when with a phonetic e/é)