Editing Protected cruiser (section)

===Italy===
{{main|List of protected cruisers of Italy}}

The Italian ''[[Regia Marina]]'' (Royal Navy) ordered twenty protected cruisers between the 1880s and 1910s. The first five ships, {{ship|Italian cruiser|Giovanni Bausan||2}} and the {{sclass|Etna|cruiser|4}}, were built as "battleship destroyers", armed with a pair of large caliber guns. Subsequent cruisers were more traditional designs, and were instead intended for reconnaissance and colonial duties. Some of the ships, like {{ship|Italian cruiser|Calabria||2}} and the {{sclass|Campania|cruiser|4}}, were designed specifically for service in Italy's colonial empire, while others, like {{ship|Italian cruiser|Quarto||2}} and the {{sclass|Nino Bixio|cruiser|4}}, were designed as high speed fleet scouts.

Most of these ships saw action during the [[Italo-Turkish War]] of 1911–1912, where several of them supported Italian troops fighting in Libya, and another group operated in the [[Red Sea]]. There, the cruiser {{ship|Italian cruiser|Piemonte||2}} and two [[destroyer]]s sank or destroyed seven Ottoman [[gunboat]]s in the [[Battle of Kunfuda Bay]] in January 1912. Most of the earlier cruisers were obsolescent by the outbreak of World War I, and so had either been sold for scrap or reduced to subsidiary roles. The most modern vessels, including ''Quarto'' and the ''Nino Bixio'' class, saw limited action in the Adriatic Sea after Italy entered the war in 1915. The surviving vessels continued on in service through the 1920s, with some—''Quarto'', {{ship|Italian cruiser|Campania||2}}, and {{ship|Italian cruiser|Libia||2}}, remaining on active duty into the late 1930s.