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

All four ships spent the majority of their time in service with the main Italian fleet, alternating between active duty for training exercises and reserve status.

[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.

As these were among the initial designs prepared by the Italian navy, they were experimental; Brin and Pullino used different hull shapes for all four vessels and fitted them with a variety of propulsion systems and armament.

[5] In 1898, Monzambano and Montebello participated in a rare deployment for members of the class when they were assigned to the Levant Squadron that was tasked with patrolling the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

[6] Throughout this period, the ships of the class would either be distributed among the divisions of the fleet, as with the case of the annual training maneuvers, or stationed together while in reserve status; in 1895, for example, the four Goitos were assigned to the 2nd Maritime Department, along with Tripoli and the eight Partenope-class torpedo cruisers.

[7] In 1897, Goito was withdrawn from front-line service and converted in a minelayer, with a capacity for 60 naval mines in place of her torpedo tubes.

Montebello remained on active duty until 1898, when she was converted into a training ship for engine room personnel, and was re-boilered with coal- and oil-fired equipment from several manufacturers in 1903.

Confienza and Monzambano were the last members of the class to leave active service, being stricken from the naval register on the same day, 26 August 1901 and sold for scrapping.

Neither ship saw action in either conflict, though Goito laid defensive minefields in the Adriatic Sea after Italy entered World War I in 1915.