Azzurro is the national color of Italy, chosen at the time of the Risorgimento, in 1861. It is not quite teal, or peacock, or cyan - it is the color of the sky at its most saturated. The Italian azzurro  is more precisely azzurro Savoia, Savoy blue, of the royal House of Savoy, who led the newly formed Kingdom of Italy until it was disbanded in 1946 to become the Italian Republic. Still, azzurro is synonymous with many of the institutions of Italy, the Italian national soccer team are known as gli Azzurri. Azzurro is also worn by the military, and outlines the banner of the president of Italy.

The color became associated with the House of Savoy in 1366, apparently, when Amadeus, Count of Savoy, chose azzurro, in honor of the Virgin Mary, for a banner to carry him into a crusade to eject the Turks from Gallipoli.  

In Grazia Deledda’s story, “Il Cinghialetto,” the color azzurro is prominent - it is one of the first colors the little boar sees after he is born, when he looks up at the sky over his native mountains. The azure sky is also one of the last things he sees before he dies.  

During his short life, in the kitchens of his wealthy captors, he sees the color mainly in their fine clothes. Though the powerful have tried to trap the color, claim it, and calibrate the particular shade of the deep blue of the sky over the Mediterranean Sea, it still belongs to everyone and no one when, in Italy, you can look out at the place where the sea blurs into the sky.