it still has to look like an ampersand first

Which, itself, is arguably the most eclectic glyph there is, appearance-wise.

>it still has to look like an ampersand first

How about something like this?

You've just given me an idea: start with the Fleischmann-style "y"...

hhp

As there are other languages in which the word for "and" is one letter long, I thought of suggesting y + и + &, and, in fact, the и can even be made into a unifying design element...

I am still dubious, as it would seem to only make sense if the ampersand was meaningful and used with some frequency in the languages in question. But there may be some bilingual display contexts where such a symbol might have some use...

> And one even more difficult, for us poor Italians: a merge between "&" and "e".

From a magazine ad for the Tiffany & Co. in Manhattan:

hhp

may be like this. the Y one. It is inspired by Hiragana. I edit Times New Roman y (italic) and edit it.

Trying to improve on my compound symbol that also included the Russian word for "and", I obtained

and doing so revealed to me where a "y" was hidden in the ampersand, and so, for the original notion, I obtained

It would be easier using the Tironian et! ;-)

Also:
https://typography.guru/forums/topic/22521-forwarding

Yeah, it's funny how the & is now perceived in Spain and Latin Amercia as an English glyph when it's also natural and correct in Spanish. A simple and Spanish friendly variation of & could be achieved by placing the Y's fork on the tail of the ampersand by separating the leg from the upper bowl.