Luna Rossa will face Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton Cup (LVC) final, after the Kiwis completed a 5-2 semi-final victory over Spain's Desafio Espanol on Wednesday.
The Italian crew qualified for the LVC final on Sunday, when they cruised to a 5-1 win over American yacht BMW Oracle in the other semi.
The best-of-nine battle starts next week, on Friday June 1.
The winner earns the right to challenge America's Cup holder Alinghi of Switzerland for sailing's most prestigious prize in another first-to-five series starting June 23.
The LVC final will give Luna Rossa the chance to avenge the 2000 America's Cup match.
On that occasion the New Zealanders retained the trophy with a 5-0 whitewash of the Italians - who had won the LVC in their debut crack at the America's Cup - before suffering the same fate against Alinghi in 2003.
Pundits are expecting a more evenly-matched affair this time.
The two teams each won one of the showdowns between them in the round-robin stage this year, which saw Team New Zealand finish top of the standings, while Luna Rossa come third behind Oracle.
The confidence of both crews is sky high.
But Luna Rossa will take heart from the fact that they needed one race fewer to see off the Americans than the Kiwis did to beat the Spaniards, who on paper were the weakest of the semi-finalists.
The ease with which Luna Rossa sent the highly-fancied Americans packing also disposed of any lingering doubts about whether their yacht is as fast as their main rivals.
Luna Rossa boss Patrizio Bertelli has stressed that his team does not fear the Kiwis.
"We have a chance of beating them too, even though they've been holders," he said.
As well as the 2000 whitewash, history also has an encouraging precedent for the team led by brilliant Australian helmsman James Spithill.
In 1992 Italy's Il Moro di Venezia, skippered by legendary French-American yachtsman Paul Cayard, beat New Zealand 5-3 in the LVC final in San Diego.
The Italians lost the ensuing America's Cup match race 4-1 to America3.
In 2002-2003 Luna Rossa were knocked out in the LVC semi-finals by US team One World.
