I received a strong catholic education, the red and blue are symbols for the blood and water that came out from Jesus side when he was pierced by a Roman soldier, John 19:34
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
Unfortunately, in Italy different choices were made. Not by Italians but by who won the WW2. Educating about the dangers of some ways of thinking or even condemning some people as criminals would have empowered too much the PCI (Italian communist party) and made the country lean too much towards the Eastern block, so a “general amnesty” was made and most things were forgotten. Here is the result. Good luck.