🇮🇹 The colours of Italy
7 meanings recorded, 39 colours tied to the country and 5 colour cities.
Italy’s national colours are green, white and red, known as il Tricolore. These colours first appeared together in the late 18th century and became a symbol of Italian unity and self-determination. Blue, called Savoy azure, is also widely used in sports, reflecting the legacy of the House of Savoy.
Where no official value is given, the swatch shows the colour family, not the exact shade.
- Italy’s flag colours first appeared together in 1789 on a cockade in Genoa.
- The flag’s green stripe was chosen for its link to nature and natural rights.
- Savoy azure blue is worn by Italian sports teams, reflecting royal history.
- Rosso corsa is Italy’s traditional racing car colour.
- The Italian tricolour became the national flag in 1797.
The colours of the flag of Italy
The Italian flag features three vertical stripes of green, white and red, with green at the hoist side. This tricolour design was first used as a military banner in 1796 and officially adopted as a national flag in 1797 by the Cispadane Republic. The green stripe was chosen by Italian revolutionaries to symbolise nature and, for some, natural rights and social equality. The flag’s colours became a strong symbol of Italian unity during the Risorgimento, the movement for national unification. While the green has a specific association, the sources do not give official meanings for the white and red stripes.
National colours of Italy
Beyond the flag, Italy’s national colours appear in several contexts. Savoy azure, a deep blue, is worn by Italian national sports teams and comes from the House of Savoy, which ruled Italy from 1861 to 1946. This blue has remained a national sporting colour even after Italy became a republic. In auto racing, Italy is represented by rosso corsa, a particular red, while white is often used in other sports like cycling and winter disciplines.
How the colours were chosen of Italy
Green, white and red first appeared together in Italy in 1789 on a cockade in Genoa, inspired by the French Revolution’s tricolour. Italian revolutionaries kept green instead of the French blue, linking it to nature and ideals of equality. The first military use was in Milan in 1796, and the flag became official in 1797. The tricolour gained popularity through the 19th century, especially during the Risorgimento, and became the flag of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Blue entered as a national colour through the House of Savoy and has been used in sports since 1910.
Official shades and rules of Italy
The Italian flag is defined by law as three equally sized vertical stripes of green, white and red, with green at the hoist. Its use and display are regulated by Italian law, which also protects the flag from insult and prescribes its teaching in schools. There is no official specification for the exact shades of the colours in the sources provided.
The facts in this overview come from the Wikipedia article "National colours of Italy", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, together with "Flag of Italy". Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
What colours mean in Italy
Customs vary by region, faith and family; these are the meanings most often recorded.
It is a custom to wear new red underwear on New Year's Eve for luck and love in the coming year. Shop windows fill with it in December.
Luck and prosperityLove and desireSource: New Year's EveRosso corsa, racing red, was the colour given to Italian cars in early international motor racing. Ferrari kept it, and it is now the colour people expect of the brand.
Festival and celebrationPrideEnergySource: Rosso corsaA crime novel or thriller is called a giallo, a yellow. The name comes from the yellow covers of a series of mysteries that Mondadori began publishing in 1929.
Danger and warningFearSource: GialloThe flag is green, white and red. A common reading gives green to the plains and hills, white to the snow of the Alps and red to the blood of the wars of unification.
Politics and protestHopeSource: Flag of ItalyNational sports teams play in blue and are called the Azzurri. Blue was the colour of the House of Savoy, which ruled Italy until 1946, and does not appear on the flag.
Royalty and powerFestival and celebrationPrideSource: National colours of ItalyThe leader of the Giro d'Italia cycle race wears the maglia rosa, the pink jersey. It matches the pink paper of La Gazzetta dello Sport, which founded the race.
Festival and celebrationPrideSource: General classification in the Giro d'ItaliaThe Blackshirts were the armed squads of Mussolini's Fascist movement. Black shirts were later copied by fascist groups in other countries.
Politics and protestDanger and warningFearSource: BlackshirtsColour and feeling in Italy
Romantic fiction is called the 'pink novel', novela rosa in Spanish and romanzo rosa in Italian.
Great fear is blue in French and Italian: 'une peur bleue', a blue fear, and 'fifa blu', a blue funk.
Green is the colour of hope in set phrases: verde esperanza, verde speranza, Grün ist die Hoffnung.
In Dante's Divine Comedy, Beatrice appears in a white veil, green cloak and red dress: the colours of faith, hope and charity.
Rosso corsa, racing red, was Italy's national motor racing colour and remains the signature of Italian sports cars.
Tyrian purple, made from sea snails at Tyre in today's Lebanon, was so costly that Rome reserved the richest purple robes for the emperor.
Renaissance painters kept ultramarine, ground from Afghan lapis lazuli and as costly as gold, for the robe of the Virgin Mary.
Colour cities of Italy
🇮🇹 The island of painted housesBuranoA fishing island in the Venetian lagoon where each small house is a different strong colour.
🇮🇹 Pastel harbour of the Bay of NaplesProcidaA small island where fishermen's houses in sun-faded pink, yellow and blue are stacked above the harbour.
🇮🇹 Five pastel villages on a cliff coastCinque TerreTall houses in ochre, pink and yellow crowd tiny harbours below terraced vineyards on the Italian Riviera.
🇮🇹 La Rossa, the red oneBolognaA city of red brick towers, terracotta roofs and miles of arcades in red, orange and ochre.
🇮🇹 The city that named a colourSienaA Tuscan hill city of warm brown brick, and the source of the earth pigment called sienna.Colours tied to Italy
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Magenta
A purplish-pink colour named after a battle and key to modern printingNamed shade · 🇫🇷 France +4
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Ultramarine
A deep blue pigment once made from lapis lazuli, prized for centuries in artPigment · 🇦🇫 Afghanistan +2
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Azure
A clear sky blue, halfway between blue and cyan on the colour wheelNamed shade · 🇮🇹 Italy +2
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Scarlet
A bright red with a touch of orange, long tied to power, sacrifice and sinNamed shade · 🇹🇷 Turkey +4
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Sky blue
A light blue named for the colour of a clear daytime skyNamed shade · 🇦🇷 Argentina +5
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Rosso corsa
The deep red that marks Italian racing cars and teamsNational or team colour · 🇮🇹 Italy
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Savoy blueblu Savoia
A bright blue between peacock blue and periwinkle, a symbol of Italy since the Middle AgesNamed shade · 🇮🇹 Italy
Red
Red hair
A rare human hair colour ranging from deep burgundy to strawberry blondNamed shade · 🇮🇪 Ireland +3
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Feldgrau
A green-grey shade long used for military uniforms in Germany and beyondNamed shade · 🇩🇪 Germany +5
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Marengo
A dark grey or blue-grey shade, once a speckled fabric from northern ItalyNamed shade · 🇮🇹 Italy +2
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Capri
A strong blue-green named for the sea and grotto near Capri, ItalyNamed shade · 🇮🇹 Italy
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Magenta (dye)
A deep pink-purple dye first made from coal tar in 1859Named shade · 🇮🇹 Italy
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Azure: Marco Almbauer, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Magenta: Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Rosso corsa: Matthew Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Savoy blue: El Gráfico, Public domain, source
- Red hair: Sunny Ripert, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Marengo: Horace Vernet, Public domain, source
- Ultramarine: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Sky blue: Gabriela Ruellan, CC0, source
- Scarlet: Daderot, Public domain, source
- Capri: Tanlingyin, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Feldgrau: Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, source
- Burano It: Kasa Fue, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Procida It: Jamiethearcher at English Wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Cinque Terre It: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves . Feel free to use my pho, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Bologna It: Ввласенко, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Siena It: Massimo Catarinella, CC BY-SA 3.0, source