She spent her career alternating between the Active and Reserve Squadrons, where she took part in training exercises each year with the rest of the fleet.

[1] Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of compound marine steam engines each driving a single screw propeller.

Steam was supplied by eight coal-fired, cylindrical fire-tube boilers that were vented through a pair of widely spaced funnels at the ends of the hurricane deck.

[1] Andrea Doria was armed with a main battery of four 432 mm (17 in) 27-caliber guns, mounted in two pairs en echelon in a central barbette.

Because of the rapid pace of naval technological development in the late 19th century, her lengthy construction period meant that she was an obsolete design by the time she entered service.

During the maneuvers, which lasted from 6 August to 5 September, the ships of the Active Squadron simulated a French attack on the Italian fleet.

[4] Andrea Doria joined the ironclads Ruggiero di Lauria, Re Umberto, and Sardegna and the cruisers Stromboli, Etruria, and Partenope for a visit to Spithead in the United Kingdom in July 1895.

[7] In 1899, Andrea Doria, Ruggiero di Lauria, Sicilia, and Sardegna took part in a naval review in Cagliari for the Italian King Umberto I, which included a French and British squadron as well.

[9] In 1900, Andrea Doria and her sisters were significantly modified and received a large number of small guns for defense against torpedo boats.

[1] In 1905, Ruggiero di Lauria and her two sisters were joined in the Reserve Squadron by the three Re Umberto-class ironclads and Enrico Dandolo, three cruisers, and sixteen torpedo boats.

Shortly before Italy entered World War I on the side of the Triple Entente, Andrea Doria was renamed GR 104[11]—a new dreadnought battleship of the same name had just been completed[12]—and was transferred to Brindisi, where she served as a guard ship.