How did azure blue come to be associated with Italy?

[CRSP]

Both Italian rugby and football teams play in azure blue, and they're nicknamed the Azzuri. How did this colour get picked, seeing as the colours of their flag is red, white and green?

[TheFlame]

Is it supposed to be azure? I never made the connection between "azzurri" and the colour, because I think of azure as being a turquoisey colour (like this)!

[Malacandra]

Might as well ask how Argentina came to be known as the Pumas.

[CRSP]

Or how Argentinians started playing rugby in the first place!

[WormTheRed]

A quote, straight outta Wiki:

The traditional colour of the national team (as well as all Italian teams and athletes) is azure blue[3] (azzurro, in Italian), due to the "Azzurro Savoia" (Savoy Blue), the colour traditionally linked to the royal dynasty which unified Italy in 1861.

Which I know I've read somewhere else aswell.

[garygnu]

Italy's car racing color is red, while light blue is France.

[CRSP]

And "racing green" is the UK's colour.

WormTheRed, interesting. I didn't think to search Wikipedia.

[WormTheRed]

I've heard it a couple of times when looking at Italy playing in the WC and EC, but I figured I might aswell provide a cite

[Hostile Dialect]

Or how Argentinians started playing rugby in the first place!

English settlers taught the Argentines how to play soccer--the oldest top-tier Argentine club has an English name, like "Norman's Boys" or something--so I assume they were just quick studies and figured out rugby too. Not to mention that Argentina has also had a lot of Irish and Italian (apparently the Italians play rugby) immigration, plus German and all kinds of other things, thanks partly to their status as a booming world economy after the Industrial Revolution.

[Götterfunken]

English settlers taught the Argentines how to play soccer--the oldest top-tier Argentine club has an English name, like "Norman's Boys" or something--so I assume they were just quick studies and figured out rugby too.

Newell's Old Boys?

I don't know much about Argentinian football, but I know a similar pattern of importation happened in Brazil--Charles Miller, who was born in Brazil (of a Scottish dad and English-Brazilian mom) but grew up in England, is credited with introducing Brazilians to the game upon his return to his land of birth in 1894.

There's also the Sao Paulo team Corinthians, named after the famous amateur English side of the same name. Their biggest rivals are Palmeiras, who were founded by Italian immigrants in Sao Paulo--interestingly, Palmeiras wear green today, but originally wore a red, white, and green strip, in honor of the Italian flag.

[Hostile Dialect]

Newell's Old Boys?

That's the one, thanks.