grave accent over the `u' in più

[Albert Einstein]

I have a problem with putting grave accent over the  letter `u' in word 
più.

I have tryied:

a_\markup{\italic{più}}   - letter ù from French keyboard and

a_\markup{\italic{pi\\`u}} as TeX encoding

but I got in first case error message:

warning: can't find ascii character: 249

and in second:
error: syntax error, unexpected $undefined:
c''8->\) r8 d''16[\( c''_\markup{\italic cresc.} b'_\markup{
                                                          \\`u} c'']

When I add più  in header as title in pdf u with circle over it is 
displayed,
when I add pi\\`u in header as title it works -- I have ù in pdf.
It was tested on  2.4.2 version and my header is:
\header {
fontencoding = "T1"
inputencoding = "cp1250"


When I apply  in header
encoding = "TeX"
I still can't display ù via \\`u (a_\markup{\\`u})
and in title I can.???!


Albert