Why Italy

History of the Italian Flag?

Could anyone give me a brief history of the Italian flag and some good website links relating to it. 10 points up for grabs.

Public Comments

1. red for the sauce white for the pasta green for the garnish
2. "Originally this was the national flag of the Cisalpine Republic, founded by Napoleon. The flag's design was influenced by the French Tricolore and was in use from 11 May 1798 to August 1802. It was reintroduced in 1848 by the King of Sardinia, who charged the white stripe with his arms [House of Savoy] and in 1861 this became the national flag of the [newly] united Italy. In 1946 the arms were removed from the flag [when Italy became a republic]."
3. The flag of Italy (often referred to in Italian as Il Tricolore) is a tricolour featuring three equally sized vertical bands of green, white and red, with the green at the hoist side. The green represents the countries plains and the hills; white, the snowy Alps; and red, the blood spilt in the Italian Independence wars. The first entity to use the Italian flag was the Cispadane Republic in 1797, after Napoleon's army crossed Italy.
4. I'm Italian and I don't even know that.
5. here it is a very good site with all you need.. but in italian http://www.rbvex.it/italia.html
6. I thought after their efforts in WW2 in the desert campaign under Mussolini the Italian flag was a white cross on a white background................or is that the French?