Admiral Simone Antonio Saint-Bon, then the Italian Minister of the Navy, ordered a small, fast vessel that was armed with Whitehead torpedoes.

Saint-Bon's request came in part due to budgetary problems that prevented building a large fleet of ironclad battleships.

Engineering Inspector Felice Mattei prepared the design for the new ship, which became Pietro Micca, one of the first torpedo cruisers, along with the German Zieten.

[1] The ship had an iron-built hull with a flat bottom; above the waterline, she had a pronounced tumblehome shape with sharply curving sides.

[1] But the US Navy officer Ridgely Hunt, writing in 1891, describes the vessel as having been equipped with a pair of tubes submerged in her hull.

[8] The contemporary naval expert Edward Very seems to support the Navy's description, writing in 1881 that the ship was "provided with tubes for discharging Whitehead torpedoes ahead, abeam, and astern.

Shortly after completing sea trials, during which the crew discovered that her hull shape prevented her from reaching her intended speed, Pietro Micca was placed in reserve.

[1] Since her low speed prevented her from catching the ironclad battleships she had been intended to destroy,[10] she did not see much service with the Italian fleet.

[14] According to Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, the Italian Navy had informally removed Pietro Micca from the naval register "some years before" formally striking her in 1893.