Flag History
The current Italian flag was adopted on June 19, 1946. The Italian tricolor flag was first used to represent the French controlled Lombardy region of northern Italy in 1796 and then used by Napoleon Bonaparte's Cisalpine Republic in 1797. In 1848, the King of Sardinia reintroduced the Italian flag incorporating his coat of arms, for all the areas of the country that were under his control. When the Italian Kingdom was established in 1861, it adopted the Italian flag with the royal coat of arms as the national flag to represent a united Italy. The arms were removed from the Italian flag in 1946 when the monarchy was abolished.
Flag
![Picture](/uploads/1/8/3/4/18349403/6170707_orig.png)
three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red; design inspired by the French flag brought to Italy by Napoleon in 1797; colors are those of Milan (red and white) combined with the green uniform color of the Milanese civic guard
note: similar to the flag of Mexico, which is longer, uses darker shades of red and green, and has its coat of arms centered on the white band; Ireland, which is longer and is green (hoist side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of the Cote d'Ivoire, which has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side), white, and green
note: similar to the flag of Mexico, which is longer, uses darker shades of red and green, and has its coat of arms centered on the white band; Ireland, which is longer and is green (hoist side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of the Cote d'Ivoire, which has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side), white, and green