The Folgore class was a pair of torpedo cruisers built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1880s.

Folgore and Saetta were designed by Benedetto Brin;[1] Brin had previously designed several classes of very large ironclad battleships, including the Duilio and Italia classes, but by the 1880s, he had begun to embrace the ideas of the Jeune École, which emphasized small, fast, torpedo-armed vessels that could damage or destroy the much larger battleships at a fraction of the cost.

[2] After the two Folgores, which were rated as torpediniere-avisos (torpedo-avisos), the eight ships of the Partenope class were laid down, continuing Brin's ideas at the time.

[1] Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of horizontal double-expansion steam engines manufactured by Hawthorn Leslie and Co., each driving a single screw propeller.

They were primarily occupied with annual training exercises, along with occasional fleet reviews for monarchs, including one for the King of Italy, Umberto I in 1887 and German Emperor Wilhelm II in 1888.

[4][5] In 1889, Folgore was badly damaged in a collision with the protected cruiser Giovanni Bausan and could not be repaired to her original condition.