Flag of Italy

How to read it

Article 12 of the constitution, in force since 1 January 1948, says the flag of the Republic is the Italian tricolour: green, white and red, in three vertical bands of equal size. The tricolour was first adopted on 7 January 1797 in Reggio Emilia, when the parliament of the Cispadane Republic, on a motion by the deputy Giuseppe Compagnoni, made a standard of green, white and red universal. That first flag had horizontal bands, red first, with the republic’s emblem in the centre. The plain flag of today dates from 19 June 1946, when a government decree removed the arms of the House of Savoy from the white band after the referendum that ended the monarchy.

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What does the Italian flag look like?

Three vertical bands of the same width: green at the pole, then white, then red, in a ratio of 2 to 3. A government decree of 2006 set the shades, which Geopop gives as fern green (Pantone 17-6153), bright white (Pantone 11-0601) and scarlet red (Pantone 18-1662).

Italy’s, Mexico’s and Ireland’s flags side by side

The Mexican flag has the same green, white and red in the same order from the pole, with Mexico’s coat of arms in the centre of the white band, and a longer shape: Mexico’s flag law sets width to length at 4 to 7. The Irish flag is green, white and orange, green by the pole, and twice as long as it is high, the Irish government says. Italy’s flag is plain, has red at the fly and is 2 by 3.

Why green, white and red

The earliest official record has the white and red taken from Milan’s city flag, a red cross on white, and the green from the uniform of Milan’s civic guard, worn since at least 1782, Sky TG24 says; they were the colours of the Lombard Legion’s regimental flags. The two sources disagree about France. Sky TG24 says the colours weren’t chosen for their likeness to the French tricolour, while Geopop says the Italian legions’ cockades and standards were modelled on the French flag. The colours had no set meaning, Geopop adds, though people soon read the green as hope, the white as faith and the red as love.

Flag day

Italy marks the flag’s birthday on 7 January, the Festa del Tricolore, held in Reggio Emilia every year since 1997. The first written rule on the flag dates from 1925, Sky TG24 says, 128 years after Reggio Emilia.