Italy Flag

Italy’s flag, often referred to as “Il Tricolore”,  is a vertical tricolour with from left to right the colours green, white and red. When used for seafaring, the white bar in the Italy flag should have added the combined weapons of four of the most important seafaring republics of Italy. 

The four most important seafaring republics in Italy are Venica, Genua, Amalfi and Pisa. A lion represents Pisa, Genua is represented by a red cross on a white background, Amalfi and Pisa are also represented by a cross, that of Amalfi being white on blue and Pisa being a white cross on red background.

The symbolism of the Italian flag is not unambiguous, as there are several explanations for the origin of the colours of the flag. One explanation is that the French flag was used as the design of the flag of Italy. Instead of a blue bar the Italians decided to use a green bar. Another explanation is that the colours of the flag find their origin in the city of Milan, which was the first political entity to use the colours green white and red in a flag, back in 1796. Read and white derive from the Milanese weaponry and the green represents the Milanese home guard.

Some Italians argue that the colour green is a symbol of the meadows and hills of Italy, the white for the snowy Alps and its glaciers and the red for the blood that has been spilled during the Unification of the Republics. Another, probably foreign explanation, refers to the Italian kitchen and argues that green is the basil, white the mozzarella and red the tomato in an Italian dish. A final explanation of teleological origin refers to green as the symbol of hope, white as the symbol of belief and red as the symbol of charity.

The history of the Italy flag dates back to 1798, when the vertical tricolour flag was first used as the flag of the Cisalpine Republic. As many times as the concept of what is now known as Italy changed, so many times changed its flag. From 1943 to 1945 for example, when the Social Republic of Italy was a vassal state of Nazi Germany, the flag had a resting eagle on the white bar.

Only in 2003 were the colours of the Italian flag officially laid down in the documents. Soon thereafter, a dispute over the specifications of the colours developed and the colour specifications were changed again. The official colours of the Italian flag, according to the Pantone Code, currently are:

17-6153 TC (bracken green)
11-0601 TC  (bright white)
18-1662 TC (blazing scarlet red)

The height-width ratio of the Italy flag is 2:3.