Due to her age, Marco Polo did not play a significant role in World War I, serving as an accommodation ship in Venice until she began conversion into a troopship in 1917.

[1] Marco Polo, named after the eponymous explorer,[4] was laid down on 1 July 1890 at the Royal Shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia.

In May 1898, Marco Polo sailed up China′s Yangtze River to make port visits at Nanjing and Hankou before returning to Shanghai in July 1898.

On 8 March 1899, while Marco Polo was at Shanghai, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vice Admiral Felice Napoleone Canevaro, ordered the protected cruiser Elba and her to occupy China's Sanmen Bay (known as "San-Mun Bay" to the Italians) in a botched attempt to force China to grant Italy a lease there similar to the lease the German Empire had secured in 1898 at Jiaozhou Bay, but countermanded the order when he discovered that the United Kingdom would not support an Italian use of force.

En route home the ship visited Zanzibar, Mogadishu, Italian Somaliland, and Massawa, Eritrea before arriving at Taranto on 26 April.

She was quickly transferred, however, to the command of Rear-Admiral Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, Inspector of Torpedo Boats.

[9] On 17 October, she arrived at Homs to support Italian forces attempting to occupy the town and bombarded it after the Ottoman commander refused to surrender.

Bad weather prevented any landings until 21 October and the ship continued to provide fire support for the Italian troops.

Marco Polo was tasked to provide fire support for the Royal Italian Army and remained at Homs after the bulk of the fleet returned to Italy to refit in December.

In early April 1912, the ship, together with the armored cruiser Carlo Alberto bombarded Zuara as a distraction while the army made an unopposed landing 40 kilometers (25 mi) away.

[13] The ship departed Shanghai on 7 December and was diverted to Hodeidah, Yemen, en route and finally reached Naples on 4 March 1915.

[7] Thoroughly obsolete by the time Italy declared war on the Central Powers in May 1915, Marco Polo was used as an accommodation ship at Venice; among those personnel housed aboard were the crews of the British submarines operating there from October 1915 through May 1917.