Flag of Italy
| Name | il Tricolore |
|---|---|
| Use | National flag |
| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | 29 June 1797 (As the Cisalpine Republic) 18 June 1946 (founding of the Italian Republic) 14 April 2006 (current colour specifications) |
| Design | A vertical tricolour of green, white and red |
Variant flag of Italian Republic | |
| Use | Civil flag and ensign |
| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | 9 November 1948 |
| Design | An Italian tricolour defaced with combined historical arms of Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi but different from that of the Italian Navy |
Variant flag of Italian Republic | |
| Use | State ensign |
| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | 24 October 2003 |
| Design | An Italian tricolour defaced with the Emblem of Italy |
Variant flag of Italian Republic | |
| Use | Naval ensign |
| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | 9 November 1947 |
| Design | An Italian tricolour defaced with the arms of the Italian Navy |
Variant flag of Italian Republic | |
| Use | War flag |
| Proportion | 1:1 |
| Design | An Italian tricolour with a dimension ratio of 1:1 |
Variant flag of Italian Republic | |
| Use | Naval jack |
| Proportion | 1:1 |
| Design | An square flag as the banner of the arms of the Italian Navy |
The national flag of Italy, often referred to as the Tricolour (il Tricolore, it), is a flag featuring three equally sized vertical pales of green, white and red, with the green at the hoist side, as defined by Article 12 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic.[1] The Italian law regulates its use and display, protecting its defence and providing for the crime of insulting it; it also prescribes its teaching in Italian schools together with other national symbols of Italy.
The Italian Flag Day named Tricolour Day was established by law n. 671 of 31 December 1996, and is held every year on 7 January. This celebration commemorates the first official adoption of the tricolour as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the Cispadane Republic, a Napoleonic sister republic of Revolutionary France, which took place in Reggio Emilia on 7 January 1797, on the basis of the events following the French Revolution (1789–1799) which, among its ideals, advocated national self-determination. The Italian national colours appeared for the first time in Genoa on a tricolour cockade on 21 August 1789, anticipating by seven years the first green, white and red Italian military war flag, which was adopted by the Lombard Legion in Milan on 11 October 1796.
After 7 January 1797, popular support for the Italian flag grew steadily, until it became one of the most important symbols of Italian unification, which culminated on 17 March 1861 with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, of which the tricolour became the national flag. Following its adoption, the tricolour became one of the most recognisable and defining features of united Italian statehood in the following two centuries of the history of Italy.
Historical evolution of the flag
[change | change source]- Flag of the Cispadane Republic (1797)
- Flag of the Cisalpine Republic (1797–1798)
- Flag of the Cisalpine Republic (1798–1802)
- Flag of the Italian Republic (1802–1805)
- Flag of the Kingdom of Italy (1805–1814)
- Flag of the Italian United Provinces (1831)
- Flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1848–1849)
- Flag of the Republic of San Marco (1848–1849)
- Flag of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (1848–1851)
- Flag of the Kingdom of Sicily (1848–1849)
- Flag of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1848–1849)
- Flag of the Roman Republic (1849)
- War flag of the Roman Republic (1849)
- Flag of the Free Cities of Menton and Roquebrune (1848–1849)
- Flag of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (1851–1861)
- Flag of the United Provinces of Central Italy (1859–1860)
- Flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1860–1861)
- State flag of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
- Civil flag of the Kingdom of Italy. Merchant flag in the period (1861–1946)
- Flag of the Colonna Italiana (1936–1945)
- Flag of the Italian Social Republic (1943–1945)
- Flag of the National Republican Army (1 December 1943 to 7 May 1945)[2]
- War flag of the Italian Social Republic (28 January 1944 to 7 May 1945)[3]
- Flag of the National Liberation Committee (1943–1945)
- Flag of the Brigate Garibaldi (1943–1945)
- Flag of the Italian ethnic minority (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians) in Yugoslavia (1945–1990)
- Flag of the Trust Territory of Somaliland (1950–1960)
- Flag of Italians of Croatia (1990–present)
- Flag of the Italian Republic (2003–2006)
- Flag of the Italian Republic (2006–present)
Description
[change | change source]Colours
[change | change source]
The colours of the Italian flag are indicated in article 12[4] of the Constitution of the Italian Republic, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298, extraordinary edition, of 27 December 1947, and came into force on 1 January 1948:
If the flag is exposed horizontally, the green part should be placed at the hoist side, with the white one in a central position and the red one outside, while if the banner is exposed vertically the green section should be placed above.[5]
Chromatic definition
[change | change source]

The need to precisely define the colours was born from an event that happened at the Justus Lipsius building, seat of the Council of the European Union, of the European Council and of their Secretariat, when an Italian MEP, in 2002, noticed that the colours of the Italian flag were unrecognisable with red, for example, which had a shade that turned towards orange. For this reason the government, following the report of this MEP, decided to specifically define the colours of the Italian national flag.[6]
The shades of green, white and red were first specified by these official documents:[6][7]
- circulaire of the Undersecretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of 18 September 2002;
- circulaire by the State Secretary for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of 17 January 2003;
New documents then replaced the previous ones:[7]
- circulaire of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers No. EU 3.3.1 / 14545/1 of 2 June 2004;
- decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of 14 April 2006, "General provisions relating to ceremonial and precedence among public offices"
The chromatic tones of the three colours, on polyester stamina, are enshrined in paragraph 1 of article n. 31 "Colour definition of the colours of the flag of the Republic", of Section V "Flag of Republic, National Anthem, National Feasts and State Funeral", of Chapter II "General provisions relating to ceremonial", of the annex "Presidency of the Council of Ministers – State Ceremonial Department", to the decree of the president of the Council of Ministers of 14 April 2006 "General provisions on ceremonial and precedence between public offices", published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 174 of 28 July 2006.
Description Number RGB CMYK HSV Hex Fern Green (Archived 23 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine) 17-6153 TC 0, 140, 69 100%, 0%, 51%, 45% 150°, 100%, 55% #008C45 Bright White (Archived 23 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine) 11-0601 TC 244, 245, 240 0%, 0%, 2%, 4% 72°, 2%, 96% #F4F5F0 Flame Scarlet (Archived 23 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine) 18-1662 TC 205, 33, 42 0%, 84%, 80%, 20% 357°, 84%, 80% #CD212A
Other official flags
[change | change source]Governmental standards
[change | change source]
The president of the Italian Republic has an official standard. The current version is based on the square flag of the Napoleonic Italian Republic, on a field of blue, charged with the emblem of Italy in gold.
External links
[change | change source]- Italy at Flags of the World
- (in Italian) La Bandiera degli italiani Presidenza della Repubblica, Palazzo del Quirinale
- (in Italian) Centro Italiano Studi Vessillologici (Italian Centre for the Study of Vexillology)
Template:National symbols of Italy Template:Risorgimento
Template:Italian flags Template:Flag of Europe
- ↑ Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana Art. 12, 22 dicembre 1947, pubblicata nella Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 298 del 27 dicembre 1947 edizione straordinaria (published in the Official Gazette [of the Italian Republic] No. 298 of 27 December 1947 extraordinary edition) "La bandiera della Repubblica è il tricolore italiano: verde, bianco, e rosso, a tre bande verticali di eguali dimensioni"
- ↑ "Verbali del Consiglio dei Ministri della Repubblica Sociale Italiana settembre 1943 – aprile 1945/24 novembre 1943". Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
- ↑ Cite error: The named reference
Forze Armate' 1944was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page). - ↑ "La Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 8 May 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ↑ "Il tricolore" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 21 June 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
- 1 2 Villa 2010, p. 35.
- 1 2 "Dopo 206 anni codificati i toni del nostro simbolo nazionale". Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
