Vitelli served as captain under Cosimo I de' Medici in his wars to gain Florence, Siena and Montalcino, and was appointed governor of Piombino (1543). He was also a general in the Spanish Army of Flanders, as well as Tuscan ambassador in the England of Elizabeth I. He was marquis of Cetona, that he acquired from Cosimo I de' Medici (1556). He died in the Netherlands in 1575.