The red, white and green of the Italian flag is well-known as a symbol for Italy. The Margherita pizza celebrates its colours. Its colours are displayed at every national celebration. But where does the flag come from and how did it come to be the national banner of Italy? As with many good stories, the story of the Italian flag has a backstory. Sure it was carried by Giuseppe Garibaldi and his thousand red-shirts when they landed in Sicily in 1860, but the flag was already more 60 years old by then. The backstory indeed doesn’t start in Italy at all. The resemblance of the Italian flag to the French…