She returned to Italy in 1901 and spent the rest of her career in reserve or as an ammunition ship, apart from a brief stint in active service in 1904.

The four ships of the Etna class were designed in Italy as domestically produced versions of the British-built cruiser Giovanni Bausan.

These cruisers were intended to serve as "battleship destroyers",[1][2] and represented a temporary embrace of the Jeune École doctrine by the Italian naval command.

[4] The main armament of the ships consisted of two Armstrong 254 mm (10 in), 30-caliber breech-loading guns mounted in barbettes fore and aft.

[2] She was present during a naval review held for the German Kaiser Wilhelm II during a visit to Italy later that year.

[5] Stromboli and her sisters Vesuvio and Ettore Fieramosca participated in the 1893 naval maneuvers as part of the Active Squadron.

[7] Later in 1894, the ship took part in the annual fleet maneuvers in the 1st Division of the Active Squadron, along with the ironclad battleship Re Umberto and the torpedo cruiser Goito.

She was joined by Vesuvio and Ettore Fieramosca, sent there in 1900 to assist the Eight-Nation Alliance in putting down the Boxer Uprising in China.