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Italy - Sport Flags

Last modified: 2008-08-16 by dov gutterman
Keywords: italy | sport | football | soccer | cispadane republic | ferrari | formula one |
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Why Italian Sport Color is Light Blue ?

The (light) blue is the color of Savoia. It was used for the Previous President's flag (blue with the coat-of-arms of the Republic in gold).
Giuseppe Bottasini

That blue colour is the livery colour of the House of Savoy, and therefore for the Kings of Italy 1861-1946.
Elias Granqvist, 13 August 2001


Football Fan Flag

There is Italian flag which is like the Somali flag but with darker shade of blue. It is the Azzurro [sky blue] of the italian sky with the white star representing  Italy ("Lo Stellone"). It is probably taken from the Italian coat of arms but I am not sure about that.
Those flags are often  seen on  soccer stadiums and can also charged from one to many stars. All our sport teams wear shirts with the blue color and white colour on their shorts. We call our teams "Azzurri" because of it. On many newspapers, especially  in relation with soccer championships, there are logos  representing  Italy,  using  the Azzurro  and  white or even golden stars instead of the  tricolor flag [but sometimes do   including it].
Francesco Santangelo, 2 January 2007


Flag at European Cup of Football (Eurocup 2000)


image by Jose C. Alegria, 29 June 2000

I just finished watching the second semi-final in european cup of football, where Italy won on the penalty series (lucky "azzurri"). The reason of this, is to show a flag I found interesting among the Italian crowd. It´s the national flag of Italy with 3 blue stars for the 3 world cups they hold.
Jose C. Alegria, 29 June 2000


Cispadane Republic Flag at Sydney 2000 Olympic Games

Today at the swimming pool I saw an Italian silver medalist holding a tricolore but with some kind of emblam on the white stripe. I try to take a look over and over but unfortunally the TV was consantrated on the winner so I couldn't see the emblam in its whole.
From what I could see it was a circle made of two branches of something (laurel ?) and inside the circle a unclear device and the letters R and C. The emblam was all blue.
My guess that it is some Italian sport emblam (swimming federation ?).
Dov Gutterman, 17 November 2000

the flag saw by Dov Gutterman is the Cispadane Republic's flag adopted by Massimiliano Rosolino silver medalist as lucky charm.
Luca Secomandi, 24 September 2000


"Respect" Flag at Euro2008


image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 2 July 2008

"RESPECT" flags distributed by UEFA to the supporters. Those "RESPECT" national flags have a vertical white stripe added along the hoist, charged with the emblem of the Championships and "RESPECT". The emblem can be seen in full colours on the Euro2008 official website.
Ivan Sache, 28 June 2008


Ferrari - Formula One Flags

Fans Flags

1)
image by Theodore Leverett, 9 October 2000

2)
image by Theodore Leverett, 9 October 2000

3)
image by Theodore Leverett, 9 October 2000

4)
image by André Serranho, 12 December 2000

In footage of the celebrations for Michael Schumacher's clinching of the Formula One championship for Ferrari (first for that company in 21 years) by winning the Japanese Grand Prix, I saw several types of flag being waved:
1) plain red flag with the Ferrari prancing horse badge in the center;
2) same as (1), with two rows of alternating black and white squares (checkered flag pattern) along the hoist;
3) same as (1), with checkered flag pattern along the upper and lower edges of the flag.
Some of the celebrants at Maranello, Italy, home of Ferrari, were also waving Italian flags.
Theodore Leverett, 9 October 2000

Near Ovelgönne (Kreis Wesermarsch, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony), Germany), I "sailed" on ferry with a Ferrari flag, with a double blocked border and the name above the shield. This may have been alternative 4 above.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 28 August 2001

Official Flag of Ferrari


image by André Serranho

The official flag is a yellow one with the black horse at the center. We are flying on the gate gardian building as many of such flags as the victories we scored this year up to now. On the other buildings there are also red flags with our shield amid, alternating the yellow one.
Concerning the other flags quoted above you can see them and others at ferrarimerchandiseshop site.
Pier Paolo Lugli, 9 October 2000

The sign with the black horse on yellow was originally the sign of a cavallry regiment, and was used by the Italian flying ace Fransesco Baracca in the First World War. Baracca was shot down and killed in 1918. Enzo Ferrari knew Baracca's father, and they decided after the war that Ferrari could use the horse as a mark on the cars of his racing team. It was used for the first time at the 24 hour race at Spa in 1932. When Ferrari started to build his own cars, the sign with the horse of course followed. The sign is used in a shield form on racing cars and in a rectangular form on cars sold to the public; above the horse is a chief (to use a heraldic term) horizontaly divided in the colours of the Italian flag - green, white and red - and to each side of the horse in the lower part is often the letters S and F, for Scuderia Ferrari, the name of Enzo Ferrari's racing team.
(I got most of this information from a Swedish book series on cars published in the 1980's, called Cars Collection.)
Elias Granqvist, 8 January 2001

There is a portrait of Jean Todt, head of Ferrari´s formula 1 racing team, on Eurosport tonight. Todt shows Ferrari flags outside the Ferrari office. Each year they put up one flag for every race won, and this year, it has been a bit difficult for them to have room for all the flags, since they won so many races.
The flags were hanging down because of lack of wind, but as far as I could see the flags were of the kind we have on our site, all yellow with the black horse.
Elias Granqvist, 14 December 2002


Swimming Conditions Flags

Here is the Italian system for swimming conditions:


image by Ivan Sache, 29 January 2004

A red flag means that swimming is dangerous and unadvised.


image by Ivan Sache, 29 January 2004

A red flag over a yellow flag mean that watching has stopped (from 18:30 to 9:30 the next day).


image by Ivan Sache, 29 January 2004

A yellow flag means that watching is limited (from 13:30 to 15:30).

My source; the website of an Italian sea resort <www.balnearilido.it>, does not mention a green flag which would, logically, be used to signal non-dangerous and watched swimming conditions.
Ivan Sache, 29 January 2004

This page was set up by the beach management of Lido di Camaiore, in Camaiore, in Lucca province, which doesn't mean that the system described is used only in the beaches of this commune.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 September 2007


According to <www.salvamento.info> all flags are rectangular:
- White: "saving service in action".
- Yellow: "danger because of the wind; it's dangerous to keep sunshades opened or to use or play with inflatable devices".
- Red: "it's dangerous to go for a bath because of bad meteorological conditions; it's dangerous to use vessels or inflatable dinghies; it's forbidden to borrow pedal-boats, boards or anything similar".
- Checkered blue and white: "No lifesaving service (usually from 13.00 to 14.30)".
Jan Mertens, 4 December 2006

This website includes in Italian much more information than is does for English or German: It additionally says that the yellow flag is rarely used and that the red flag is used when it rains or when the sea is choppy, or both. This therefore is not a hierarchical system of increasing danger.  
A checquered flag is hoisted to indicate that the lifeguard not on duty (lunch time), probably similar to Portuguese use.
This page quotes for its flag information the regulation for beach safety issued by the Emilia-Romagna regional government (along with some ironical comments about the publics' perception of beach flags!), but, again, that doesn't mean that the system described is used only in the beaches of this region.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 September 2007


The WTO 2001 big book on tourism signage [lqr01] quotes an IFTO survey (40-42) stating that Italy uses "no flag for safety, yellow for caution, red for danger", wich matches neither of the above (except for the colors). The same book, however, lists only a red flag for danger, and none other, as an "WTO survey" (also p. 40- 42).
António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 September 2007