The Re d'Italia class was a pair of ironclad warships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1860s.

The two ships were built in the United States, and were based on the French ironclad Gloire; they were armed with a battery of thirty-eight guns in a broadside arrangement and were protected with 120 mm (4.7 in) of wrought iron plating.

Italy considered the Austrian Empire to be its main rival, since it controlled predominantly Italian areas, including Venice.

In 1861, the two ships of the Re d'Italia class were ordered from the American shipyard owned by William H. Webb, under the direction of General Luigi Federico Menabrea, then the Italian Navy Minister.

[1] The design for the ships was based heavily on the contemporary French ironclad Gloire, but they did not meet the high expectations the Italian fleet placed upon them.

For long-distance travel, the ships were fitted with three masts and were barque-rigged, with a total sail area of 21,317 square feet (1,980.4 m2).

In the ensuing melee, Re d'Italia was rammed and sunk by the Austrian flagship, the ironclad SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, with heavy loss of life.

In 1875, the Regia Marina sold the ship for scrap, owing to the discovery that the green timbers used to build the hull had badly rotted.