[1] Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of horizontal triple-expansion steam engines that drove two screw propellers.

Tight budgets forced the navy to reduce the pace of construction so that the funds could be used to keep the active fleet in service.

[6] In 1902, Umbria was part of a squadron with the protected cruisers Calabria and Giovanni Bausan in American waters.

[7] In September 1904, Umbria stopped in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to supervise the transfer of sailors who had been killed by a yellow fever outbreak on her sister Lombardia in 1896.

[9] In June 1905, Umbria represented Italy at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon.

Two days after arriving, Umbria's captain, officers, and twenty crewmen went ashore and placed a wreath to commemorate the men who had been killed aboard the United States' gunboat Bennington in a boiler explosion.

[11] Umbria ran aground outside Kingston, Jamaica in July 1906, while en route from Puerto Rico.

Rumors that year of a potential sale to the Ecuadorian Navy prompted Peru to buy the old French cruiser Dupuy de Lôme, though Ecuador did not end up purchasing Umbria.

[13] Instead, in December 1910, the Regia Marina sold Umbria to the Haitian Navy, but she did not arrive in Port-de-Paix, Haiti, until 13 June 1911.

[14][15] A German captain, Willy Meyer, was hired to take command of the ship upon her arrival in Haiti, but due to the lengthy delays, he quit.