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Italy

Italia, Repubblica Italiana

by zeljko heimer

Official use of the flag, ensign and jack

The flag is for national, government and military use in land and for government use at sea.
For private use at sea there is an ensign similar to the national flag, but carrying a shield on the white strip with the four symbols of the so-called "Sea Republics" (Repubbliche Marinare) of Italian tradition: first quarter Venice (St. Mark's winged lion holding a book), second Genoa (a red-on-white cross), third Amalfi (Maltese white cross on dark blue) and fourth quarter Pisa (peculiar-shaped white cross on red).
Navy carries the same flag, but the lion holds a sword instead of a book and the whole shield is crowned. These flags are official since 9th November 1947.
alessio bragadini

Italian jack is a square banner of the arms appearing on the naval ensign. The Amalfi cross was the original cross which was taken then by the members of the Order of Malta. The reason of that is that the members of this Order came originally from Amalfi.
pascal vagnat

Gonfalons

All the Italian towns have a gonfalon, which is the official emblem of the town. Its usage is ruled by law. For instance in the town I live the town's Statute says the gonfalon can be used only if the Mayor is present. Usually gonfalons show the coat-of-arms of the town, so they are not true flags.
giuseppe bottasini 7-MAR-1996

Popular use of the flag

In Italy the national flag is rarely used too, but not for "sacreness" of it. We Italian are not much patriotic, consequently we do not use the flag or its colors in everyday's life. The only occasions you can see the green-white-red flag appended outside the not-official buildings are the victories of Italian soccer team !
giuseppe bottasini

Why Italian sport color is light blue

The (light) blue is the color of Savoia. It is still used for the President's flag (blue with the coat-of-arms of the Republic in gold).
giuseppe bottasini 26-FEB-1996

Politics and Flags

The new (1993) electoral law forced the creation of big political assemblages.

It is worth noticing that the assemblages and some new parties have adopted symbols based on the Italian flag.
The Left assemblage's (for the 1994 elections) symbol was a white circle with red-white-green strips and the word "Progressisti" (Progressives). In the Middle assemblage symbol there are the red-white-green strips tied together.
The bigger (and newer) party in the Right Assemblage is identified by a variation on the Italian flag: the white strip is oblique and narrow and they add the words "Forza Italia" (Cheer up Italy).

I think all the assemblages use the national colors because:

The national flag is not related to any political trend, it's "neutral" enough to be used to all parties. The new assemblages do not want to be politically extreme, all of them want to persuade the common, politically-middle man.
The national flag represents the unity of the nation. One of the new parties, "Lega Nord", asserts the independence of the northern part called "Padania". The assemblages assert instead the unity of the nation.

Some aged parties too have used the national flag in their symbols. Curiosly they are left or right oriented parties, not middle. In the PCI's (Italian Communist Party) symbol there was a national flag mostly hidden by a red sickle-and-hammer flag: I suppose it meant the communist ideology superimposed over the national identity. Today "Rifondazione Comunista" (neo-communist party) still has the red flag but the national one is represented as a half-circle in the bottom of the symbol, therefore the superimposition is not so evident. In the MSI's (neo-fascist party) symbol there was a green-white-red flame. PLI (Italian Liberal Party) directly used the national flag with the three letters P L I over the three strips. Both of them are conservative parties: they used national flag and colors to emphasize patriotism. In fact in Italian culture patriotism is considered a conservative idea.
giuseppe bottasini

Italian flag in WWII

Since Italy technically remained a monarchy throughout the war, and flag remained the current Tricolor with the arms of the house of Savoy in the middle I think Mussolini's "Italian Social Republic" (based around Salò in the far north once Mussolini had been rescued by the Germans in 1944) also used the tricolour but with fasces in the white stripe.
roy stilling 09-APR-1996