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.

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] Ruggiero di Lauria 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.

[1] The year after she entered service, the British began building the Royal Sovereign class, the first pre-dreadnought battleships, which marked a significant step forward in capital ship design.

[4] In 1895, Ruggiero di Lauria, the ironclad Sardegna, and the torpedo cruiser Partenope were assigned to the 2nd Division of the Italian fleet in the Reserve Squadron.

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

[9] For the periodic fleet maneuvers of 1897, Ruggiero di Lauria was assigned to the First Division of the Reserve Squadron, which also included the ironclads Duilio and Lepanto and the protected cruiser Lombardia.

[11] In 1899, Ruggiero di Lauria, Andrea Doria, 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.

[13] In 1900, Ruggiero di Lauria 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.

She was renamed GM45 and stationed at La Spezia until 1943, when she was sunk in shallow water by an air raid during World War II.