The club's original colours were blue and white and not the current blue and yellow. The club's historic nickname is "Gialloblu" (from the club colours of yellow and blue), although throughout Italian football, the Verona's team recognised in the past by most fans as "Gialloblu" are Hellas Verona, Chievo's main rivals. Local supporters often call the club simply "Ceo", which is Venetian for Chievo. The club is now sometimes referred to as the "I Mussi Volanti" ("The Flying Donkeys" in the Verona dialect of Venetian). "The Flying Donkeys" nickname was originally used by fans from crosstown rivals Hellas to mock Chievo. The two clubs first met in Serie B in the mid-1990s, with Hellas chanting "Quando i mussi volara, il Ceo in Serie A" — "Donkeys will fly before Chievo are in Serie A." However, once Chievo earned promotion to Serie A at the end of the 2000–01 Serie B season, Chievo fans started to call themselves "The Flying Donkeys".