Prince Tommaso of Savoy, 2nd Duke of Genoa (Tommaso Alberto Vittorio; 6 February 1854 – 15 April 1931), who is also known as Thomas Albert Victor of Savoy, was an Italian royal prince, nephew of Victor Emmanuel at the time the King of Sardinia, who on 18 February 1861 became the first King of a united Italy. His cousin and brother-in-law Umberto I and his nephew Victor Emmanuel III became subsequent kings of Italy. Prince Thomas was born in Turin in 1854, as the second child and only son of Prince Ferdinand of Savoy, 1st Duke of Genoa, the second son of Charles Albert, King of Sardinia (1798–1849, abdicated 1848) and his wife Maria Theresa of Austria-Tuscany (1801–55). Prince Thomas' mother was Princess Elisabeth of Saxony (1830–1912), daughter of King John I of Saxony (1801–73) and Princess Amalie of Bavaria (1801–77). Barely a year after his birth, on 10 February 1855, his father died and Prince Thomas inherited his title, becoming the 2nd Duke of Genoa. He was educated at Harrow. With the accession of Victor Emmanuel II to the throne of Italy in 1861, Prince Tommaso, in common with all of the family members, became a prince of Italy. In 1883 at Nymphenburg, Bavaria, he was married to Princess Maria Isabella of Bavaria (1863–1924), the eldest daughter of the late Prince Adalbert of Bavaria (1828–1875) and Infanta Amalia of Spain (1834–1905), daughter of the Duke of Cadiz. During 

World War I the king, Victor Emanuel III, assumed the duties of Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and named the Duke of Genoa as Luogotenente, in which position he managed the civil affairs of the kingdom throughout the war. Prince Thomas' elder sister Princess Margherita of Savoy-Genoa (1851–1926) married King Umberto I of Italy. Her only child was King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, who reigned starting from his father's murder in 1900. Prince Thomas died in 1931, leaving six adult children. He was the last surviving grandchild of Charles Albert of Sardinia.

 The Regia Marina (Italian for 'Royal Navy') (RM) or Royal Italian Navy was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia) from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (Repubblica Italiana), the Regia Marina changed its name to Marina Militare ("Military Navy"). The Regia Marina was established on 17 March 1861 following the proclamation of the formation of the Kingdom of Italy. Just as the Kingdom was a unification of various states in the Italian peninsula, so the Regia Marina was formed from the navies of those states, though the main constituents were the navies of the former kingdoms of Sardinia and Naples. The new Navy inherited a substantial number of ships, both sail- and steam-powered, and the long naval traditions of its constituents, especially those of Sardinia and Naples, but also suffered from some major handicaps. Firstly, it suffered from a lack of uniformity and cohesion; the Regia Marina was a heterogeneous mix of equipment, standards and practice, and even saw hostility between the officers from the various former navies. These problems were compounded by the continuation of separate officer schools at Genoa and Naples, and were not fully addressed until the opening of a unified Naval Academy at Livorno in 1881. Secondly, unification occurred during a period of rapid advances in naval technology and tactics, as typified by the launch of Gloire by France in 1858, and later by the appearance of, and battle between, USS Monitor and CSS 

Virginia in 1862. These innovations quickly made older warships obsolete. Italy did not possess the shipyards or infrastructure to build the modern ships required, but the then Minister for the Navy, Admiral Carlo di Persano, launched a substantial programme to purchase warships from foreign yards. The new navy's baptism of fire came on 20 July 1866 at the Battle of Lissa during the Third Italian War of Independence (parallel to the Seven Weeks War). The battle was fought against the Austrian Empire and occurred near the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea. That was one of the few fleet actions of the 19th century and as a major sea battle that involved ramming, it is often considered to have had a profound effect on subsequent warship design and tactics. The Italian fleet, commanded by Admiral Persano, mustered 12 ironclad and 17 wooden-hulled ships, though only one, Affondatore, was of the most modern turret ship design. Despite a marked disadvantage in numbers and equipment, superior handling by the Austrians under Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff resulted in a severe defeat for Italy, which lost two armoured ships and 640 men. After the war, the Regia Marina passed through some difficult years as the naval budget was substantially reduced, thus impairing the fleet's efficiency and the pace of new construction; only in the 1870s, under Simone Pacoret de Saint Bon's ministry, did the situation begin to improve. In 1881, the battleship Duilio was commissioned, followed in 1882 by the battleship Enrico Dandolo; at the time these were the most powerful warships in the world, and signalled the Italian fleet's renewed power. In 1896 the corvette Magenta completed a circumnavigation of the world. The following year the Regia Marina conducted experiments with Guglielmo Marconi in the use of radio communications. 1909 saw the first use of aircraft with the fleet. An Italian naval officer, Vittorio Cuniberti, was the first in 1903 to envision in a published article the all-big gun battleship design, which would be later come to be known as dreadnought.