Etruria was a protected cruiser of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) built in the 1891 by Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando Livorno. She was the third of six vessels of the Regioni class, all of which were named for current, or in the case of Etruria, former regions of Italy. The ship was equipped with a main armament of four 15 cm (5.9 in) and six 12 cm (4.7 in) guns, and she could steam at a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

Italian cruiser Etruria 1909

Etruria spent her early career with the main fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. In the early 1900s, she spent much of her time in North and South American waters; she visited the United States for the Jamestown Exposition and the Hudson–Fulton Celebration in 1907 and 1909. The ship took part in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, primarily by providing gunfire support to Italian troops in North Africa. Reduced to a training ship by World War I, Etruria was deliberately sunk by the Regia Marina in Livorno to convince Austria-Hungary that its espionage network had not been compromised by double agents.

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