The Italian Tricolour Flag as the national flag was chosen in Reggio Emilia on 7 January 1797, when the Parliament of the Cispadane Republic, at the proposal of deputy Giuseppe Compagnoni, decreed as follows: 'that the Cispadan Standard or Flag of Three Colours Green, White, and Red be made universal, and that these three colours also be used in the Cispadan Cockade, which must be worn by all'.
But why these three colours? In the Italy of 1796, traversed by Napoleon's victorious armies, the numerous Jacobin-inspired republics that had supplanted the ancient absolute states almost all adopted, with colour variations, flags characterised by three bands of equal size, clearly inspired by the French model of 1790.
The 'Italian' military units, constituted at the time to flank Bonaparte's army, also had banners in the same style. In particular, the regimental banners of the Lombard Legion had the colours white, red and green, which were strongly rooted in the collective heritage of that region: white and red, in fact, appeared in the very ancient municipal coat of arms of Milan in the form of a red cross on a white field, while green had been the uniforms of the Milanese Civic Guard since 1782.
The same colours were also adopted in the banners of the Italian Legion, which gathered soldiers from the lands of Emilia and Romagna, and this was probably the reason that prompted the Cispadane Republic to confirm them in its flag. In the centre of the white band is the coat of arms of the Republic, a turcasso containing four arrows, surrounded by a laurel wreath and adorned with a trophy of arms.
Everywhere in Italy, white, red and green express a common hope, which kindles enthusiasm and inspires poets: 'Collect us a single flag, a hope', wrote Goffredo Mameli in 1847 in his Canto degli Italiani, set to music by Michele Novaro.
On 17 March 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed and adopted, by custom, the flag of the First War of Independence. The lack of a special law in this regard - issued only for military banners - led to the production of banners in different shapes from the original, often even arbitrary.
It was not until 1925 that the designs of the national flag and the state flag were defined by law. The royal crown was added to the latter, which was used in the King's residences, parliamentary buildings, offices and diplomatic representations.
After the birth of the Republic, a Presidential Legislative Decree of 19 June 1946 established the provisional design of the new flag, which was confirmed by the Constituent Assembly in its session of 24 March 1947. Today, this style is included in Article 12 of our Constitutional Charter.
