During the war, she was involved in the assaults on Tripoli in North Africa and on the island of Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

She was fitted with a single heavy military mast placed amidships, which was equipped with fighting tops for some of the light guns.

Steam for the engines was provided by twelve coal-fired cylindrical fire-tube boilers, which were vented through a pair of funnels on either end of the mast.

She had a range of approximately 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at a more economical cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[1] In September 1900, the ship began her sea trials off Naples; during the tests, Emanuele Filiberto maintained a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) for a two-hour period.

[1] The ship spent the first several years of her career in the 1st Squadron, along with her sister Ammiraglio di Saint Bon, the three Re Umberto-class ironclads, and the two Regina Margherita-class battleships.

[3] In October 1906, the ship participated in major fleet maneuvers under the command of Vice Admiral Alfonso di Brochetti in the Ionian Sea.

On 19 April, Emanuele Filiberto and most of the fleet returned to Italy, leaving only Pisa, Amalfi, and a flotilla of torpedo boats to cruise off the Ottoman coast.

[9] On 30 April, Emanuele Filiberto and the rest of the 3rd Division escorted a convoy of troopships from Tobruk to the island of Rhodes.

In July, Emanuele Filiberto and the rest of the division had withdrawn to Italy to replace worn-out gun barrels, along with other repairs.

Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, the Italian Naval Chief of Staff, believed that Austro-Hungarian submarines and minelayers could operate very effectively in the narrow waters of the Adriatic.

Instead, Revel decided to implement a blockade at the relatively safer southern end of the Adriatic with the battle fleet, while smaller vessels, such as the MAS boats, conducted raids on Austro-Hungarian ships and installations.

[11] Once Italy entered the war, Emanuele Filiberto was used as a harbor defense ship in Venice to protect the port from Austrian naval attacks.

[12] The ship remained in the Italian Navy's inventory for only a short time after the end of the war in 1918, and she was stricken from the naval register on 29 March 1920 and subsequently broken up for scrap.