In February 1897, Vesuvio deployed to Crete to serve in the International Squadron, a multinational force made up of ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, French Navy, Imperial German Navy, Regia Marina, Imperial Russian Navy, and British Royal Navy that intervened in the 1897–1898 Greek uprising on Crete against rule by the Ottoman Empire. She arrived as part of an Italian division that also included the ironclad battleships Sicilia (flagship of the division's commander, Vice Admiral Felice Napoleone Canevaro) and Re Umberto and the torpedo cruiser . By June, she had been assigned to the 1st Division of the active fleet in 1897, which also included the battleships Re Umberto, , and Sicilia, the protected cruiser Giovanni Bausan and the torpedo cruisers Euridice and .
