She was armed with a variety of light guns and five 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo tubes, and was capable of a top speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph).

The ship was built in the late 1880s, with her keel laying in September 1887 at the Arsenale di La Spezia; she was completed in April 1890 and thereafter entered service with the Italian fleet.

[1] The keel for Confienza was laid down at the Arsenale di La Spezia in September 1887, the last member of her class to begin construction.

[3] Later in 1894, the ship was assigned to the Third Division of the Italian fleet, along with the ironclad San Martino and the newly commissioned protected cruiser Liguria.

[4] The following year, Confienza was stationed in the 2nd Maritime Department, split between Taranto and Naples, along with most of the torpedo cruisers in the Italian fleet.

[6] Confienza's career was the shortest of the members of her class, having spent just over a decade in service before she was stricken from the naval register on 26 August 1901 and broken up for scrap.