The new ship was intended to serve in Italy's colonial empire in eastern Africa, and was designed to be able to operate at long range, far from home ports, for an extended period of time.

[1] That vessel's wooden hull had been superseded by newer steel-hulled ships like Flavio Gioia and Amerigo Vespucci that had been completed in the early 1880s.

The new Cristoforo Colombo proved to be the final corvette of the Italian fleet; the navy thereafter turned to protected cruisers like Calabria for its colonial patrol duties.

Her steel hull was sheathed in copper to reduce biofouling, which was necessary for a ship intended to be stationed far from the level of maintenance facilities in home ports.

[6] To supplement the steam engine, particularly on long voyages to and from Italy's colonial empire, Cristoforo Colombo carried a barque sailing rig.

[8] By 1901, Cristoforo Colombo was assigned to the Red Sea to patrol Italy's East African colony in Italian Somaliland, along with the gunboats Volturno and Provana and the training vessel Volta.

[10] In 1903, the unit was renamed the Red Sea and Benadir Division, and was reinforced with the torpedo cruiser Caprera and the aviso Barbarigo.