History Italy

Italian Regions & Province

The Regions of Italy were granted a degree of regional autonomy in the 1948 constitution, which states that the constitution's role is: to recognize, protect and promote local autonomy, to ensure that services at the State level are as decentralized as possible, and to adapt the principles and laws establishing autonomy and decentralization.

However, five regions (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardinia, Sicily, Trentino-South Tyrol, and the Aosta Valley) have been granted a special status of autonomy to establish their own regional legislation on some specific local matters; based on cultural grounds, geographical location and on the presence of important ethnic minorities. The other 15 ordinary regions were effectively established only in the early 1970s.




In Italy, a province (in Italian: provincia) is an administrative division of intermediate level between municipality (comune) and region (regione).
A province is composed of many municipalities, and usually several provinces form a region. An exception to this is the region of the Aosta Valley, which, strictly speaking, has no provinces.

The administrative functions of the province are provided by the regional government. However, loosely speaking, it is seen as a single province.