Personnel from the brigade were dispatched to fight in the Italian colonial wars in Eritrea in 1887, Abyssinia in 1895 and Libya in 1911.

In spring 1915 the brigade moved to the Austrian border and saw its first combat during the First Battle of the Isonzo.

In fall of 1940 the division command and 21st Artillery Regiment were sent to Albania to reinforce the Italian units in the Greco-Italian War.

During the Second Battle of El Alamein the Trieste was annihilated and its remnants, reinforced with men and materiel from Italy, fought against the British Eighth Army in Tunisia until the Axis surrender to the Allies on 13 May 1943.

The 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment "Lancieri di Aosta" was transferred to the VI Military Territorial Command.

In 1955 the army decided to assign the defence of Trieste to the Infantry Division "Folgore".

In September 1956 the Trieste and the Infantry Division "Friuli" entered the newly raised VI Army Corps in Bologna.

The brigade was headquartered in Bologna and most of its units stationed in the surrounding region of Emilia-Romagna.

During the 1975 army reform the regimental level was abolished and brigades took direct command of battalions, more units were mechanized and higher commands realigned to better defend Italy against a potential Warsaw Pact attack.