Italy’s national football team is known colloquially by its nickname Gli Azzurri which means The Blues. This is because Savoy blue is the common colour of all the national teams representing Italy.

Fino Fini, the director of FIGC’s (the Italian soccer federation) Museo Civico del Calcio, Italy’s official soccer museum, explains the reason has a deep connection with Italian history: you see, that particular shade of blue we today call “azzurro,” was known as blu Savoia –or Savoia blue – in those years, because it was the color of Italy’s royals, the Savoias.

Gli Azzurri refers to the Italian national soccer, rugby, and ice hockey teams, and the Italian ski team as a whole is referred to as the Valanga Azzurra (Blue Avalanche). The female form, Le Azzurre, is likewise used to refer to Italian women's national teams.