The Italians scored two tries through Alessandro Zanni, and a penalty effort, but it was 16 points from Alberto Di Bernardo and their powerful scrum which dominated their Cardiff opponents.
Dafydd Hewitt and Lou Reed scored the tries for Cardiff, but Davies admitted indiscipline had been costly.
He said: "It was a tough game. Our scrum and discipline in particular let us down. There was lots of effort and we scored two good tries but ultimately we weren't good enough.
"It's a bit of a shame because we always put the effort in but we never got a foothold in their half to put any consistent pressure on them which is very disappointing.
"I'm just very disappointed we didn't get the result we wanted here. We need to be more accurate, not just up front but all over the field. We should be used to these conditions and it was just very disappointing."
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