Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel, the Italian naval chief of staff, believed that Austro-Hungarian submarines could operate too effectively in the narrow waters of the Adriatic, which could also be easily seeded with minefields.

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

[4] Nino Bixio was based at Brindisi in southern Italy to support the Otranto Barrage, along with the protected cruisers Puglia, Quarto, and Libia, and several destroyers and submarines.

[5][6] On 29 December 1915, an Austro-Hungarian force of two cruisers and five destroyers attempted to intercept transports supplying the Serbian Army trapped in Albania.

The first flotilla engaged in a running battle with the fleeing Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS Helgoland but Nino Bixio's group was too far behind to close to effective range.

She and Weymouth briefly engaged the fleeing Austro-Hungarians at very long range, and Nino Bixio received a single hit forward.

[12] The Regia Marina demobilized after the end of the war in 1918 and the draw-down continued into the 1920s in large part due to severe budgetary shortfalls in the postwar period.

[13][14] The engines installed on Nino Bixio and her sister proved to be problematic throughout her time in service, which ultimately cut her career short.

She was stricken from the naval register on 15 March 1929 and subsequently broken up for scrap; in contrast, the much more efficient Quarto, which had been built before Nino Bixio, remained in service for another decade.