The Italian flag has been in force since January 1, 1948, but its history is much older. It has been celebrated every January 7 at the “Festa del Tricolore” in Reggio Emilia since 1997.

The Italian flag was born as a military flag: it was proposed in 1796 to distinguish the Italian contingent in the Cispadana and Cisalpine republics in Napoleon’s army. On January 7, 1797, the Tricolor was adopted as the flag of the Republic of Cispadane in Reggio Emilia: the blue of the French flag was replaced by green, the colour of the uniforms of the Milan Civil Guard, thus becoming the symbol of the volunteers.

Thus, the Italian Tricolor was born as the flag of the Cisalpine Republic.  “The republic’s flag is the Italian tricolour: green, white and red, consisting of three vertical stripes of equal size.” The first Italian flag had horizontal stripes, not vertical, and the first colour was red, not green. Also in the centre of the white stripe was the Republic’s coat of arms, a quiver with four arrows inside, surrounded by a laurel wreath and decorated with a heraldic cup. However, it gained its current band and colour arrangement in later years.

The Tricolor existed long before the Italian state: it was “born” on January 7, 1797, in Reggio Emilia as a symbol of the Cisalpine Republic, one of the states born after the first Italian campaign of Napoleon’s troops. The local parliament, on the proposal of MP Giuseppe Compagnoni, determined that “the Cispadana Flag or Tricolor Flag of Green, White and Red should be made universal and should also be used in the Cispadana Coccarda, where these three Colors must be worn.” By all”. Therefore, our flag was officially born 64 years before the Italian State. With the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, the Tricolor was abolished. However, it remained in the memory of the Italians and was repeatedly raised against the Austrians. In 1848, they adopted their shields (a white one on a red field). It was accepted into the Kingdom of Sardinia by the Savoys who wore it. It became the flag of the Kingdom of Italy after the unification of Italy (1861) and the declaration of the Republic (1946). then Savoy’s shield was removed.

What are the colours inspired by?

Green, white and red were not chosen because of their similarity to the Tricolor of the French Revolution. These were also the regimental banners of the Lombard Legion: the first statement reported by official sources reports how the white and red were taken from the municipal flag of Milan, which was the traditional red cross on a white field. The green colour comes from the uniform of the Milan Civil Guard, which has been used since at least 1782. The same colours were adopted in the standards of the Italian Legion, which brought together soldiers from Emilia and Romagna, and this is what prompted the Cispadane Republic to approve them in its flag.

The Italian flag is one of the few on the Old Continent that does not “colour” the jerseys of most national sports teams. Blue has historically denoted Italy’s male and female athletes, the colour of Savoy’s noble coat of arms. Even though Italy has not been a monarchy since 1946, it was decided that sports jerseys would not be changed.