Italy’s regional flags
Twenty regions, twenty flags: most put a coat of arms on a plain field, but a few, like Sicily’s trinacria and Sardinia’s four Moors, are centuries old.
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Italy’s regions were written into the 1948 constitution, but most of them only got elected councils in 1970, and many of their flags came even later. The newer ones tend to be a regional coat of arms on a single colour; the older ones carry symbols from the kingdoms and republics that ruled the peninsula before unification.
The islands
Sicily
The trinacria, a Medusa head with three legs, on red and gold split diagonally.
Sardinia
The four Moors: four heads around a red St George’s cross on white.
The north
Aosta Valley
Plain black and red halves.
Piedmont
The white cross of Savoy on red, with a blue label: the arms of the Princes of Piedmont.
Lombardy
A green Camunian rose on white, from prehistoric rock carvings in the Val Camonica.
Veneto
The winged lion of St Mark, emblem of the old Venetian Republic.
Trentino-Alto Adige
Its arms join the eagles of Trentino and Tyrol.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
A gold eagle on blue, from the patriarchs of Aquileia who once ruled Friuli.
Liguria
Carries Genoa’s red cross of St George.
Emilia-Romagna
The region’s emblem on white, flown since 1995 without a flag law: a curved line for the river Po and a straight one for the Via Emilia, the Roman road that gave Emilia its name.
The centre
Tuscany
A red Pegasus on white, the emblem of the Tuscan resistance in 1944.
Umbria
The three ceri, the tall wooden pillars carried in Gubbio’s annual race.
Marche
A woodpecker, the bird the ancient Piceni took their name from.
Lazio
Its arms hold the shields of the region’s five provinces.
Abruzzo
White, green and blue diagonal bands: mountain snow, hills and sea.
Molise
The arms on light blue: an eight-pointed star from the old county of Molise and a silver band from the arms of the De Molisio family.
The south
Campania
A red band on white, from the arms of Amalfi, on blue. The flag has never been made official.
Apulia
The octagon of Castel del Monte, with an olive tree.
Basilicata
Four wavy lines for the region’s four main rivers.
Calabria
The arms on blue: a pine, a Doric column and two crosses, four symbols of Calabria, between the words “Regione Calabria”.
On the globe
ItalyMore flags
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