To be clear, the displacement of the aircraft carriers of the Italian navy are 30k tonnes and 14k tonnes. US carriers are about 100k tonnes, UK about 65k tonnes. I don't think they're really comparable, as US amphibious assault ships have greater displacement than the Italian carriers.

And yet, both can project force. Even using F-35s like the US Navy does. Not that any of that would help against Houthi rebels.

Absolutely capable of projecting force, yes. But the commenter above pointed out that it would be an big risk for a country with two (they said one, but it's two very small) ACs to send one of them into a war zone instead of trade ships simply going around. At least that's was my read of it.

Although it's a worthwhile correction to say Italy's navy fields two ACs instead of one, I just don't think it's material to their point.

Boring pedantic note: the US Navy uses the heavier catapult-launched F-35. Other nations use the STOVL F-35, which has a smaller weapons payload and shorter range.

(Only three nations in the world have catapult-equipped aircraft carriers: the US, France and China. The latter two countries are not F-35 users.)