Flavio Gioia was a screw corvette of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) built in the late 1870s and early 1880s.

The design for Flavio Gioia was prepared by the naval engineer Carlo Vigna; the ship was the first steel-hulled cruising vessel of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy).

The Italians responded with Flavio Gioia and the similar Amerigo Vespucci as part of a modest program to modernize its cruising fleet.

The ship was protected by a curved armor deck that was 38 mm (1.5 in) thick, with a layer of extensively subdivided series of watertight compartments below, which was intended to control flooding in the event of damage below the waterline.

[1] Later that year, Flavio Gioia joined the Training Squadron attached to the Italian naval academy at Livorno.

The voyage lasted for three and a half months, and included stops in the Azores, Gibraltar, Vigo and Cartagena in Spain, the Balearic Islands, and La Maddalena, Italy, before returning to Livorno.

[6] Flavio Gioia operated as a cadet training vessel in company with the corvette Cristoforo Colombo in 1895.

[8] Flavio Gioia remained in the Training Squadron in 1903, and for four months of the year, she was attached to the Italian naval academy.