Striker Fabio Quagliarella scored his first goal for a year to help Juventus to a 2-0 win over lowly Novara in Serie A on Sunday while Inter Milan's revival continued with a 1-0 win at Cesena.
Simone Pepe was the other scorer for Serie A leaders Juventus who stayed unbeaten this season after 15 games.
Andrea Ranocchia's second-half goal gave Claudio Ranieri's Inter their fifth win in six league games although they were somewhat lucky as Cesena had most of the play and chances.
Parma scored twice in the last five minutes to draw 3-3 with Lecce, Genoa beat Bologna 2-1 and Catania overcame Palermo 2-0 in Sunday afternoon's other games.
Juventus are on 33 points, two ahead of AC Milan, who briefly went top with a 2-0 home win over Siena on Saturday, and three in front of Udinese who visit Lazio on Sunday evening (1945).
Quagliarella, who has a knack of scoring spectacular goals, last hit the net against Chievo on Dec 19 last year but shortly afterwards suffered a knee ligament injury which ruled him out for the rest of last season.
"This is the cherry on the cake," the Italy international told Juve's website (www.juventus.com). "It hasn't been easy in the last months but I've always felt I had the backing of the coach and the team."
Alessandro Del Piero was given a rare start this season for Juventus who needed only four minutes to break the deadlock and Pepe turned in Paolo De Ceglie's low cross at the far post.
Dominating the game, Juve missed a hatful of chances before Quagliarella headed in from a corner with 15 minutes left.
