Allegorical print of 1895 celebrating the 25th anniversary of the capture of Rome. The figure contains numerous national symbols of Italy associated with allegories of ancient Roman history.
Some of them are official, i.e. they are recognized by the Italian state authorities, while others are part of the identity of the country without being defined by law.
Of these only the flag is explicitly mentioned in the Italian Constitution; this normative insertion puts the flag under the protection of the law, making it possible criminal penalties for contempt of the same.[4]
Other official symbols, as reported by the Presidency of the Italian Republic,[2] are:
the Presidential Standard of Italy, that is the distinctive standard representing the Presidency of the Italian Republic;
the Festa della Repubblica, that is the national celebratory day established to commemorate the birth of the Italian Republic, which is celebrated every year on 2 June, date of the institutional referendum of 1946 with which the monarchy was abolished;
The teaching in the schools of Il Canto degli Italiani, the reflection on the Risorgimento events, and on the adoption of the Flag of Italy are prescribed by law n. 222 of 23 November 2012.[5][6]
There are also other symbols or emblems of Italy which, although not defined by law, are part of the Italian identity:
the Italia turrita, that is the national personification of Italy in the appearance of a young woman with her head surrounded by a wall crown completed by towers (hence the term "turrita");
Goddess Roma, the personification of the city of Rome and more broadly, of the ancient Roman state.[7]
the cockade of Italy, or the national ornament of Italy, obtained by folding a green, white and red ribbon into plissé using the technique called plissage ("pleating");
the strawberry tree, or the small tree chosen as a national tree because of its green leaves, its white flowers and its red berries, colors that recall the Italian flag;[11] The flower of the strawberry tree is the national flower of Italy.[12]
From an architectural point of view it was conceived as a modern forum, an agora on three levels connected by stairways and dominated by a portico characterized by a colonnade. The complex process of national unity and liberation from foreign domination carried out by King Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy, to whom the monument is dedicated, has a great symbolic and representative value, being architecturally and artistically centered on the Italian unification: for this reason the Vittoriano is considered one of the national symbols of Italy.[17]
It also preserves the Altar of the Fatherland (Italian: Altare della Patria), first an altar of the goddess Roma and then also a shrine of the Italian Unknown Soldier, thus adopting the function of a laytemple consecrated to Italy. Because of its great representative value, the entire Vittoriano is often called the Altare della Patria, although the latter constitutes only a part of it.
Located in the center of ancient Rome and connected to the modern one thanks to streets radiating from Piazza Venezia, it has been consecrated to a wide symbolic value representing - thanks to the call of the figure of Vittorio Emanuele II and the realization of the Altare della Patria - a lay temple metaphorically dedicated to a free and united and celebrating Italy - by virtue of the burial of the Unknown Soldier - the sacrifice for the homeland and for the connected ideals.
Cockade of ItalyGianni Rivera, soccer player of A.C. Milan, with the cockade of Italy, in an image from the early 1970s
The cockade of Italy (Italian: Coccarda italiana tricolore) is the national ornament of Italy, obtained by folding a green, white and red ribbon into a plissé using the technique called plissage (pleating). It is one of the national symbols of Italy and is composed of the three colours of the Italian flag with the green in the centre, the white immediately outside and the red on the edge.[18] The cockade with the red and green inverted position is instead that of Iran.[19] The cockade, a revolutionary symbol par excellence, was the protagonist of the uprisings that characterized the Italian unification, being pinned on the jacket or on the hats in its tricolour form by the many patriots who were protagonists of this period of the history of Italy - during which the Italian Peninsula achieved the own national unity - which culminated on 17 March 1861 with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.[20] On 14 June 1848, it replaced the azure cockade on the uniforms of some departments of the Royal Sardinian Army (become Royal Italian Army in 1861), while on 1 January 1948, with the birth of the Italian Republic, it took its place as a national ornament.[21]
The Italian tricolour cockade appeared for the first time in Genoa on 21 August 1789,[22] and with it the colours of the three Italian national colours,[22] anticipating by seven years the first tricolour military banner, which was adopted by the Lombard Legion in Milan on 11 October 1796,[23] and of eight years the birth of the flag of Italy, which had its origins on 7 January 1797, when it became for the first time a national flag of an Italian sovereign State, the Cispadane Republic.[24]
The emblem comprises a white five-pointed star, the Stella d'Italia, with a thin red border, superimposed upon a five-spoked cogwheel, standing between an olive branch to the left side and an oak branch to the right side; the branches are in turn bound together by a red ribbon with the inscription "REPVBBLICA ITALIANA" ("Italian Republic" written in Italian, but in an ancient Roman-style Latin alphabet). The emblem is used extensively by the Italian government.
The day commemorates the institutional referendum held by universal suffrage in 1946, in which the Italian people were called to the polls to decide on the form of government, following the Second World War and the fall of Fascism
The Tricolour Day, Flag Day dedicated to the Italian flag, was established by law n. 671 of 31 December 1996, which is held every year on 7 January. This celebration commemorates the first official adoption of the tricolour as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the Cispadane Republic, a Napoleonic sister republic of Revolutionary France, which took place in Reggio Emilia on 7 January 1797, on the basis of the events following the French Revolution (1789–1799) which, among its ideals, advocated the national self-determination. The Italian national colours appeared for the first time in Genoa on a tricolour cockade on 21 August 1789, anticipating by seven years the first green, white and red Italian military war flag, which was adopted by the Lombard Legion in Milan on 11 October 1796.
After 7 January 1797, popular support for the Italian flag grew steadily, until it became one of the most important symbols of the Italian unification, which culminated on 17 March 1861 with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, of which the tricolour became the national flag. Following its adoption, the tricolour became one of the most recognisable and defining features of united Italian statehood in the following two centuries of the history of Italy.
The Frecce Tricolori ([ˈfrettʃetrikoˈloːri]; literally "Tricolour Arrows"), officially known as the 313° Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico, Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale (PAN) Frecce Tricolori ("313th Acrobatic Training Group, National Aerobatic Team (PAN) Frecce Tricolori"), is the aerobatic demonstration team of the Italian Air Force, based at Rivolto Air Base, province of Udine, in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, born in 1961 following the decision of the same Air Force and to create a permanent group for the training for the collective air acrobatics of its pilots.
They were formed in 1961 as an Air Force team, replacing unofficial teams that had been sponsored by various commands by the beginning of the 1930s.[31] The team flies the Aermacchi MB-339-A/PAN, a two-seat fighter-trainer craft capable of 898km/h at sea level.[31][32] With ten aircraft, nine in training and a soloist, they are the world's largest acrobatics patrol, and their flight schedule, comprising about twenty acrobatics and about half an hour, made them the most famous in the world.[33]
Tomb of the Italian Unknown Soldier, under the statue of Roma, at Altare della Patria, RomeRoma on a denarius, 93-92 BC (Walters Art Museum)
In ancient Roman religion, Roma was a female deity who personified the city of Rome and more broadly, the Roman state.[7] She was created and promoted to represent and propagate certain of Rome's ideas about itself, and to justify its rule. She was portrayed on coins, sculptures, architectural designs, and at official games and festivals. In Rome, the Emperor Hadrian built and dedicated a gigantic temple to her as Roma Aeterna ("Eternal Rome"), and to Venus Felix, ("Venus the Bringer of Good Fortune"), emphasising the sacred, universal and eternal nature of the empire.[7] Roma's official cult served to advance the propagandist message of Imperial Rome. In Roman art and coinage, she is usually depicted in military form, with helmet and weapons. In Rome's eastern provinces, she was often shown with mural crown or cornucopia, or both.[34] Her image is rarely found in a commonplace or domestic context.[35] Roma was probably favoured by Rome's high-status Imperial representatives abroad, rather than the Roman populace at large. She was depicted on silver cups, arches, and sculptures, including the base of the column of Antoninus Pius. She survived into the Christian period as a personification of the Roman state. Her depiction seated with a shield and spear later influenced that of Britannia, personification of Britain.
The Altar of the Fatherland is the most famous part of the Altare della Patria in Rome and is the one with which it is often identified.[36] On the top of the entrance stairway, it was designed by the Brescian sculptor Angelo Zanelli, who won a competition specially held in 1906.[37][36] It is formed from the side of the Tomb of Italian Unknown Soldier that faces the outside of the building (the other side, which faces inside the Vittoriano, is in a crypt), from the sacellum of the statue of Roma (which is exactly above the tomb of the Unknown Soldier) and two vertical marble reliefs that descend from the edges of the aedicula containing the statue of the goddess Rome and which run downwards laterally to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.[37]
The statue of Roma present at the Vittoriano interrupted a custom in vogue until the 19th century, by which the representation of this subject was with exclusively warlike traits. Angelo Zanelli, in his work, decided to further characterize the statue by also providing the reference to Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and the arts, as well as of war.[38] The great statue of the deity emerges from a golden background.[36] The presence of the goddess Roma in the Vittoriano underlines the irremissible will of the Unification of Italy patriots to have the Rome as the capital of Italy, an essential concept, according to the common feeling, from the history of the peninsula and the islands of Italian culture.[39][40]
The song was very popular during the unification of Italy and in the following decades, although after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy (1861) the Marcia Reale (Royal March), the official hymn of the House of Savoy composed in 1831 by order of King Charles Albert of Sardinia, was chosen as the anthem of the Kingdom of Italy. "Il Canto degli Italiani" was in fact considered too little conservative with respect to the political situation of the time: Fratelli d'Italia, of clear republican and Jacobin connotation, it was difficult to reconcile with the outcome of the unification of Italy, which was a monarchy.
After the Second World War, Italy became a republic, and "Il Canto degli Italiani" was chosen, on 12 October 1946, as a provisional national anthem, a role that it later preserved while remaining the de facto anthem of the Italian Republic. Over the decades there were several unsuccessful attempts to make it the official national anthem, but it finally gained de jure status on 4 December 2017.
Italia turrita (pronounced[iˈtaːljaturˈriːta]; "Turreted Italy") is the national personification or allegory of Italy, in the appearance of a young woman with her head surrounded by a mural crown completed by towers (hence turrita or "with towers" in Italian). It is often accompanied by the Stella d'Italia ("Star of Italy"), from which the so-called Italia turrita e stellata ("turreted and stellate Italy"), and by other additional attributes, the most common of which is the cornucopia. The allegorical representation with the towers, which draws its origins from ancient Rome, is typical of Italian civic heraldry, so much so that the wall crown is also the symbol of the cities of Italy.
Italia turrita, which is one of the national symbols of Italy, has been widely depicted for centuries in the fields of art, politics and literature. Its most classic aspect, which derives from the primordial myth of the Great Mediterranean Mother and which was definitively specified at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries by Cesare Ripa, wants to symbolically convey the royalty and nobility of Italian cities (thanks to the presence of crown turrita), the abundance of agricultural crops of the Italian peninsula (represented by the cornucopia) and the shining destiny of Italy (symbolized by the Stella d'Italia).
The Italian sparrow is considered the national bird of Italy.[13] In appearance, it is intermediate between the house sparrow, and the Spanish sparrow, a species of the Mediterranean and Central Asia closely related to the house sparrow. The Italian sparrow occurs in northern Italy and neighbouring regions, with intermediates with the house sparrow in a very narrow contact zone in the Alps, a slow gradation in appearance from the Italian to Spanish sparrows across central and southern Italy, and more birds of intermediate appearance in Malta, Crete, and other parts of the Mediterranean.
The Italian wolf features prominently in Latin and Italian cultures, such as in the legend of the founding of Rome.[8] It is unofficially considered the national animal of Italy.[9][10] The Italian wolf (Canis lupus italicus or Canis lupus lupus), also known as the Apennine wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to the Italian Peninsula. It inhabits the Apennine Mountains and the Western Alps, though it is undergoing expansion towards the north and east. As of 2019, the Italian wolf population is estimated to consist of 1500–2000 individuals.[43] It has been strictly protected in Italy since the 1970s, when the population reached a low of 70–100 individuals. The population is increasing in number, though illegal hunting and persecution still constitute a threat. Since the 1990s, the Italian wolf's range has expanded into southwestern France[44] and Switzerland.[45] Although not universally recognised as a distinct subspecies, it nonetheless possesses a unique mtDNAhaplotype[46] and a distinct skull morphology.
Therefore, it follows the Head of State whenever he leaves the Quirinal Palace, where he is exposed during his presence.[47] The standard is displayed on the means of transport on which the president ascends, outside the prefectures when the president is visiting a city and inside the halls where he acts in an official capacity.[47] The presidential standard is one of the National symbols of Italy.
The standard recalls the colors of the flag of Italy, with particular reference to the standard of the historic Italian Republic of 1802-1805; the square shape and the savoy blue border, whose use was maintained even in the Republican era, symbolize the Italian Armed Forces, which are commanded by the president.[47]
The Stella d'Italia ("Star of Italy"), popularly known as Stellone d'Italia ("Great Star of Italy"),[48] is a five-pointed white star symbolizing Italy for many centuries. It is the oldest national symbol of Italy, since it dates back to ancient Greece[14] when Venus, associated with the West as an evening star, was hired to identify the Italian peninsula. From an allegorical point of view, the Stella d'Italiametaphorically represents the shining destiny of Italy.[49]
The strawberry tree began to be considered one of the national symbols of Italy in the 19th century, during the Italian unification, because with its autumn colours it recalls the flag of Italy (green for its leaves, white for its flowers and red for its berries).[11][50] For this reason it is the national tree of Italy.[11] The flower of the strawberry tree is the national flower of Italy.[12]
Goffredo Mameli was an Italian patriot, poet, writer and a notable figure in the Risorgimento. He is also the author of the lyrics of "Il Canto degli Italiani", the national anthem of Italy.
An institutional referendum was held by universal suffrage in the Kingdom of Italy on 2 June 1946, a key event of contemporary Italian history. Until 1946, Italy was a kingdom ruled by the House of Savoy, reigning since the unification of Italy in 1861 and previously rulers of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In 1922, the rise of Benito Mussolini and the creation of the Fascist regime in Italy, which eventually resulted in engaging the country in World War II alongside Nazi Germany, considerably weakened the role of the royal house.
"Il Canto degli Italiani" is a patriotic song written by Goffredo Mameli and set to music by Michele Novaro in 1847, currently used as the national anthem of Italy. It is best known among Italians as the "Inno di Mameli", after the author of the lyrics, or "Fratelli d'Italia", from its opening line. The piece, in 4/4 time signature and B-flat major key, has six strophes, and a refrain sung after each. The sixth group of verses, almost never performed, recalls the first strophe's text.
The 1848 Revolutions in the Italian states, part of the wider Revolutions of 1848 in Europe, were organized revolts in the states of the Italian peninsula and Sicily, led by intellectuals and agitators who desired a liberal government. As Italian nationalists they sought to eliminate reactionary Austrian control. During this time, Italy was not a unified country, and was divided into many states, which, in Northern Italy, were ruled directly or indirectly by the Austrian Empire. A desire to be independent from foreign rule, and the conservative leadership of the Austrians, led Italian revolutionaries to stage revolution in order to drive out the Austrians. The revolution was led by the state of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Some uprisings in the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, particularly in Milan, forced the Austrian General Radetzky to retreat to the Quadrilateral fortresses.
The Flag of Italy, often referred to as The Tricolour, is a flag featuring three equally sized vertical pales of green, white and red, with the green at the hoist side, as defined by Article 12 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic. The Italian law regulates its use and display, protecting its defense and providing for the crime of insulting it; it also prescribes its teaching in Italian schools together with other national symbols of Italy.
The Cispadane Republic was a short-lived client republic located in northern Italy, founded in 1796 with the protection of the French army, led by Napoleon Bonaparte. In the following year, it was merged with the Transpadane Republic to form the Cisalpine Republic. The Cispadane Republic was the first Italian sovereign State to adopt the Italian tricolour as its flag.
The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument, also known as the Vittoriano or Altare della Patria, is a large national monument built between 1885 and 1935 to honour Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, in Rome, Italy. It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill. The monument was realized by Giuseppe Sacconi.
The emblem of the Italian Republic was formally adopted by the newly formed Italian Republic on 5 May 1948. Although often referred to as a coat of arms, it is an emblem as it was not designed to conform to traditional heraldic rules. The emblem is used extensively by the Italian government.
The Sala del Tricolore, formerly the Patriotic Hall, is an historical hall that currently serves as the council chamber of the comune (municipality) of Reggio Emilia, northern Italy. It was designed by the architect Lodovico Bolognini as the archive of the ducal family of Este. In the Sala del Tricolore, on 7 January 1797, the flag of Italy was born, hence the name of the hall. Adjacent to the room is the Tricolour Flag Museum, whose collection is made up of relics related to the Italian flag.
The Flags of Napoleonic Italy were the green, white and red tricolour flags and banners in use in Italy during the Napoleonic era, which lasted from 1796 to 1814. During this period, on 7 January 1797, the green, white and red tricolour was officially adopted for the first time as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the Cispadane Republic. This event is commemorated by the Tricolour Day.
Italia turrita is the national personification or allegory of Italy, in the appearance of a young woman with her head surrounded by a mural crown completed by towers. It is often accompanied by the Stella d'Italia, from which the so-called Italia turrita e stellata, and by other additional attributes, the most common of which is the cornucopia. The allegorical representation with the towers, which draws its origins from ancient Rome, is typical of Italian civic heraldry, so much so that the mural crown is also the symbol of the cities of Italy.
Festa della Repubblica is the Italian National Day and Republic Day, which is celebrated on 2 June each year, with the main celebration taking place in Rome. The Festa della Repubblica is one of the national symbols of Italy.
The Stella d'Italia, popularly known as Stellone d'Italia, is a five-pointed white star, which has symbolized Italy for many centuries. It is the oldest national symbol of Italy, since it dates back to Graeco-Roman mythology when Venus, associated with the West as an evening star, was adopted to identify the Italian peninsula. From an allegorical point of view, the Stella d'Italia metaphorically represents the shining destiny of Italy.
The national colours of Italy are green, white, and red, collectively known in Italian as il Tricolore. The three Italian national colours appeared for the first time in Genoa on 21 August 1789 on the cockade of Italy shortly after the outbreak of the French Revolution, on 11 October 1796 they were used for the first time in Milan on a military banner, while on 7 January 1797 in Reggio Emilia they appeared for the first time on a flag.
National Unity and Armed Forces Day is an Italian national day since 1919 which commemorates the victory in World War I, a war event considered the completion of the process of unification of Italy. It is celebrated every 4 November, which is the anniversary of the armistice of Villa Giusti becoming effective in 1918 declaring Austria-Hungary's surrender.
Tricolour Day, officially National Flag Day, is the flag day of Italy. Celebrated on 7 January, it was established by Law 671 on 31 December 1996. It is intended as a celebration, though not a public holiday. The official celebration of the day is held in Reggio Emilia, the city where the Italian tricolour was first adopted as flag by an Italian sovereign state, the Cispadane Republic, on 7 January 1797.
The cockade of Italy is the national ornament of Italy, obtained by folding a green, white and red ribbon into a plissé using the technique called plissage (pleating). It is one of the national symbols of Italy and is composed of the three colours of the Italian flag with the green in the centre, the white immediately outside and the red on the edge. The cockade, a revolutionary symbol, was the protagonist of the uprisings that characterized the Italian unification, being pinned on the jacket or on the hats in its tricolour form by many of the patriots of this period of Italian history. During which, the Italian Peninsula achieved its own national unity, culminating on 17 March 1861 with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. On 14 June 1848, it replaced the azure cockade on the uniforms of some departments of the Royal Sardinian Army, while on 1 January 1948, with the birth of the Italian Republic, it took its place as a national ornament.
Savoy blue or Savoy azure, also known as Italian blue, is a shade of saturated blue between peacock blue and periwinkle, lighter than peacock blue. Since the middle ages, it is the colour of the House of Savoy, the royal dynasty of the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1946.
Marco Giuseppe Compagnoni was an Italian constitutionalist, writer, and journalist. He is best known as the "father of the Italian flag", since he was the first to propose the official use of the Italian tricolour for the flag of a sovereign Italian state, the Cispadane Republic, on 7 January 1797.
The Anniversary of the Unification of Italy is a national day that falls annually on 17 March and celebrates the birth of Italy as a modern nation state, which took place following the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861.
References
↑ "England's National Symbols". england.org.za. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2012. National symbols are defined as the symbols or icons of a national community (such as England), used to represent that community in a way that unites its people.
↑ [...] The flag of the Republic is the Italian tricolor: green, white and red, with three vertical bands of equal dimensions. [...] Article No. 12 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic of 27 December 1947, published in the 'Official Journal of the Italian Republic No. 298, Extraordinary Edition, 27 December 1947, and entered into force on 1 January 1948.
↑ Atkinson, David; Cosgrove, Denis (March 1998). "Urban Rhetoric and Embodied Identities: City, Nation, and Empire at the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument in Rome, 1870-1945". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 88 (1): 28–49. doi:10.1111/1467-8306.00083.
↑ Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana Art. 12, 22 dicembre 1947, pubblicata nella Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 298 del 27 dicembre 1947 edizione straordinaria (published in the Official Gazette [of the Italian Republic] No. 298 of 27 December 1947 extraordinary edition) "La bandiera della Repubblica è il tricolore italiano: verde, bianco, e rosso, a tre bande verticali di eguali dimensioni"
↑ (in French) Monnier, A. & Figuet, R. (May 2013), Le loup en France Plan national d'action sur le loup 2008-2012, CGAAER 78
↑ Glenz, C.; Massolo, A.; Kuonen, D.; Schlaepfer, R. (2001). "A wolf habitat suitability prediction study in Valais (Switzerland)". Landscape and Urban Planning. 55: 55–65. doi:10.1016/s0169-2046(01)00119-0.
↑ (in Italian) various authors - Guida pratica agli alberi e arbusti in Italia; Biblioteca per chi ama la natura - Selezione dal Reader's Digest Milano 1983, 1991.
Bibliography
Barbero, Alessandro (2015). Il divano di Istanbul (in Italian). Sellerio Editore. ISBN978-88-389-3352-3.
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