Italian Flag

The flag of Italy is tricolored with green, white and red vertical bands in equal part. The current Italian flag has been in use since June 1946 and was formally adopted as the national flag in January 1948.

The colors represent three virtues: green = hope, white = faith, red = charity.

The tricolored Italian flag first flew in 1797 to represent the Cisalpine Republic at Modena. Inspired by the equal-sized, three colored French flag of the late 1700’s, the flag of Italy found its roots. The three colors were selected by combining the red and white from the flag of Milan with green, the color of the uniform of the Milanese civic guard.

Through the 1800’s Italy was occupied by many foreign nations. The Hapsburgs of Austria – controlled Milan, Tuscany, and portions of Genoa. The Spanish bourbons held Naples and Sicily. The pope held temporal power over the extensive area of central Italy. It was under these circumstances that the Cisalpine deputation went to Paris in 1804 to solicit Napoleon I to accept the crown of Italy.

Napoleon unified the northern Italian provinces in 1805 and the tricolored Italian Flag was officially adopted. While Napoleon’s control was short lived the flag that flew under Napoleon was an identifying fixture within the country.

The flag of Italy was again flown as the national flag in late 1848 when King Carlo Alberto, of Piedmont and Sardinia, as he led an effort against imperialism and foreign control. King Alberto, of the House of Savoia, added the arms of his royal house to the flag. That emblem was removed from the flag of Italy when Italy became a Republic in June 1946, returning the Flag’s design to the simple green, white and red.