Not so dark ages

what i'm going for with this is a very different, slightly nicer middle ages, with more than one church, no islam, and a suez canal. this will be followed by a steam punk era (steam engine discovered at same time as printing press and gun powder) that lasts for centuries, until the world's coal supply is exausted, then a technological age. the POD will be that the western roman empire is able to keep italy. some things that will happen: persia will conquer turkey and the blakans (a very early ottoman empire) ethnic groups will seatle in very different places, (magyar baltic) and any thing else you want to happen. go ahead and start now!