The Roma class was a pair of ironclad warships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1860s and 1870s.

Both were stricken from the naval register in 1895 and broken up for scrap the following year, Roma having been badly damaged in a fire in 1895.

[1] By this time, however, other navies had begun to build central battery ships, which concentrated a smaller number of guns in an armored casemate that had limited capability for end-on fire.

[2] As a result, De Luca re-designed the second ship of the class, Venezia, into a central battery ironclad while she was under construction.

[1] Both ships were protected by wrought iron belt armor that was 150 mm (5.9 in) thick and extended for the entire length of the hull at the waterline.

Ironically, by the time she was completed, the Italian navy had moved on to yet further advanced turret ships like the Duilio class.

[1][5] Roma was mobilized during the Franco-Prussian War, during which Italy took advantage of the French defeat to seize Rome.

[6] In 1880, Roma took part in a naval demonstration off Ragusa in an attempt to force the Ottoman Empire to comply with the terms of the Treaty of Berlin and turn over the town of Ulcinj to Montenegro.

Venezia was broken up for scrap the following year, but Roma was converted into a depot ship in La Spezia.