Italy's foreign ministry on Thursday tweeted a photo of the ministry building lit up with the colours of the Italian flag to mark the 224th anniversary of the tricolour's adoption in 1787.
"Italy celebrates the 224th anniversary of the tricolour, symbol of the country's history," read the tweet.
"Over the past year, we have seen it draped from our balconies, and monuments and buildings across Europe and Africa lit up in green, white and red in solidarity and closeness with our country during the darkest time of the pandemic," the tweet added.
The tweet referred to Italy's dramatic outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year, when the country was Europe's epicentre of the deadly novel Coronavirus.
