# If you'd like to omit non-matching lines from the result; add ';d' to the end of the expression.
sed -E 's/\x3ci\x3e(.{1,3})\x3c\\/i\x3e/$1/;t' <<< "La vida <i>es</i> bella."
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for SED, please visit: https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/html_node/The-_0022s_0022-Command.html