The 15metropolitan cities of Italy (Italian:città metropolitane d'Italia) areadministrative divisions ofItaly, operative since 2015, which are a special type ofprovince.[1] The metropolitan city, as defined by law, includes a large core city and the surrounding suburbs and countryside closely related to it by economic activities and essential public services, as well as to cultural relations and to territorial features.
The original 1990 law defined as metropolitan cities thecomuni ofTurin,Milan,Venice,Genoa,Bologna,Florence,Rome,Bari,Naples and their respective hinterlands, reserving theautonomous regions the right to individuate metropolitan areas in their territory.[2] In 2009, amendments addedReggio Calabria to the list.[3] The metropolitan areas defined by the autonomous regions were:Cagliari andSassari inSardinia;Catania,Messina andPalermo inSicily.
On 3 April 2014 theItalian Parliament approved a law that established ten metropolitan cities inItaly,[4] excluding the autonomous regions. Five more were added later. The new metropolitan cities (except Sassari, which was established in 2021 and became operative in 2025) have been operative since 1 January 2015.
A metropolitan city is composed of acentral city, which serves as the seat of government, and its surrounding municipalities (comuni). Each metropolitan city is headed by a metropolitan mayor (sindaco metropolitano), who is assisted by a legislative body, the metropolitan council (consiglio metropolitano), and by a non-legislative assembly, the metropolitan conference (conferenza metropolitana).[5]
Themetropolitan mayor is the chief executive and administrative officer of the city. The mayor represents, convenes and chairs meetings of the metropolitan council, administers city offices, supervises the functioning of city services, and prepares the city's budget.[5] The mayor of the provincial capital comune automatically becomes the metropolitan mayor.[5]
The metropolitan council is the chief legislative body of the metropolitan city. It proposes laws and amendments to the metropolitan conference, and approves programs, regulations and rules submitted to it by the metropolitan mayor such as the budget.[5] The council consists of mayors and city councillors of each commune in the metropolitan city elected from amongst themselves using partiallyopen listproportional representation, with seats allocated using theD'Hondt method.[5] Metropolitan councillors are electedat-large for five-yearterms; votes for metropolitan councillors are weighted by grouping comunes of a certain population range into nine groups so that votes of the mayors and city councillors of the more populous groups are worth than those of less populous groups.[5] The number of councillors a metropolitan city is granted depends upon its population: metropolitan cities with a population of 3 million or more have 24 councillors; metropolitan cities with a population of 800,000 but less than or equal to 3 million have 18 councillors; all other metropolitan cities have 14 councillors.[5]
The metropolitan conference adopts or rejects laws and amendments approved by the metropolitan council. It is the ultimate approving body of the city's budget.[5] Actions in the conference require votes of at least two-thirds of comunes in the metropolitan city and the majority of overall resident population. The conference is composed of all mayors of the communes within the metropolitan city.[5][6]
Metropolitan cities carry out the basic functions of aprovince, principally:[5]
| # | Metropolitan city | Area (km²) | Population (2025) | Density (inh./km2) | Operative since | Mayor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rome (Roma) | 5,352 km2 (2,066 sq mi) | 4,223,885 | 789 | 1 January 2015 | Roberto Gualtieri (PD) |
| 2 | Milan (Milano) | 1,575 km2 (608 sq mi) | 3,247,623 | 2,062 | 1 January 2015 | Giuseppe Sala (Ind) |
| 3 | Naples (Napoli) | 1,171 km2 (452 sq mi) | 2,958,410 | 2,526 | 1 January 2015 | Gaetano Manfredi (Ind) |
| 4 | Turin (Torino) | 6,827 km2 (2,636 sq mi) | 2,207,873 | 323 | 1 January 2015 | Stefano Lo Russo (PD) |
| 5 | Bari | 3,821 km2 (1,475 sq mi) | 1,218,191 | 319 | 1 January 2015 | Vito Leccese (PD) |
| 6 | Palermo | 5,009 km2 (1,934 sq mi) | 1,194,439 | 238 | 4 August 2015 | Roberto Lagalla (UDC) |
| 7 | Catania | 3,574 km2 (1,380 sq mi) | 1,068,563 | 299 | 4 August 2015 | Enrico Trantino (FdI) |
| 8 | Bologna | 3,702 km2 (1,429 sq mi) | 1,020,865 | 276 | 1 January 2015 | Matteo Lepore (PD) |
| 9 | Florence (Firenze) | 3,514 km2 (1,357 sq mi) | 989,460 | 282 | 1 January 2015 | Sara Funaro (PD) |
| 10 | Venice (Venezia) | 2,462 km2 (951 sq mi) | 833,934 | 339 | 1 January 2015 | Luigi Brugnaro (Ind) |
| 11 | Genoa (Genova) | 1,839 km2 (710 sq mi) | 818,651 | 445 | 1 January 2015 | Silvia Salis (Ind) |
| 12 | Messina | 3,266 km2 (1,261 sq mi) | 595,948 | 182 | 4 August 2015 | Federico Basile (SV) |
| 13 | Cagliari | 4,570 km2 (1,760 sq mi) | 538,989 | 118 | 1 January 2017 | Massimo Zedda (PP) |
| 14 | Reggio Calabria | 3,183 km2 (1,229 sq mi) | 511,935 | 161 | 31 January 2016 | Giuseppe Falcomatà (PD) |
| 15 | Sassari | 4,285 km2 (1,654 sq mi) | 312,555 | 73 | 1 April 2025 | Giuseppe Mascia (PD) |
Media related toMetropolitan cities of Italy at Wikimedia Commons
