This ship served as the Greek flagship for the bulk of her active career and participated in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, fighting in two battles against the Ottoman Navy.

She played a minor role in World War II after escaping from Greece during the German invasion in early 1941.

The Pisa class was designed in 1904 by Italian engineer Giuseppe Orlando, who attempted to replicate on a smaller scale the armament and armor of the Regina Elena-class battleships then entering the service of the Regia Marina.

For ships of their displacement, they were considered to have been heavily armed, but inferior to battlecruisers, a type introduced during their lengthy construction time.

[2] The main armament of the two Italian Pisa-class ships consisted of four Cannone da 254/45 V Modello 1906[Note 1] guns in hydraulically powered, twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure.

[5] The Royal Hellenic Navy preferred smaller 234 mm (9.2 in) guns purchased from Britain for Georgios Averof, but the ship was otherwise armed nearly identically to her half-sisters.

[7] The Italian ships mounted eight Cannone da 190/45 V Modello 1906 in four hydraulically powered twin-gun turrets, two in each side amidships, as their secondary armament.

[8] The Elswick Pattern 'B' 7.5-inch guns aboard Georgios Averof used 90.7-kilogram (200 lb) AP shells which were fired at muzzle velocities of 844 m/s (2,770 ft/s).

[9] For defense against torpedo boats, all three ships mounted 16 Vickers quick-firing (QF) Cannone da 76/50 V Modello 1908 guns.

[12] The ship participated in the Coronation Fleet Review for King George V of the United Kingdom in 1911 shortly after commissioning.

[18] After the end of the war, Amalfi escorted the Italian king and queen on the royal yacht to Germany and Sweden during a 1913 visit.