Comune

A comune is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions and provinces. The comune can also have the title of città.
Formed praeter legem according to the principles consolidated in medieval municipalities, the comune is provided for by article 114 of the Constitution of Italy. It can be divided into Frazione, which in turn may have limited power due to special elective assemblies.
In the autonomous region of the Aosta Valley, a comune is officially called a commune in French.

Overview

The comune provides essential public services: registry of births and deaths, registry of deeds, and maintenance of local roads and public works. Many comuni have a Municipal police , which is responsible for public order duties. The comune also deal with the definition and compliance with the piano regolatore generale, a document that regulates the building activity within the communal area.
All communal structures or schools, sports and cultural structures such as communal libraries, theaters, etc. are managed by the comuni. Comuni must have their own communal statute and have a climatic and seismic classification of their territory for the purposes of hazard mitigation and civil protection. Comuni also deal with the waste management.
It is headed by a mayor assisted by a legislative body, the consiglio comunale, and an executive body, the giunta comunale. The mayor and members of the consiglio comunale are elected together by resident citizens: the coalition of the elected mayor gains three fifths of the consiglio's seats.
The giunta comunale is chaired by the mayor, who appoints others members, called assessor, one of whom serves as deputy mayor. The offices of the comune are housed in a building usually called the municipio, or palazzo comunale.
As of January 2021, there were 7,904 comuni in Italy; they vary considerably in size and population. For example, the comune of Rome, in Lazio, has an area of and a population of 2,758,454 inhabitants, and is both the largest and the most populated.
Atrani in the province of Salerno is the smallest comune by area, with only, and Morterone is the smallest by population. Many present-day comuni trace their roots along timescales spanning centuries and at times millennia.
The northernmost comune is Predoi, the southernmost one Lampedusa e Linosa, the westernmost Bardonecchia and the easternmost Otranto. The comune with the longest name is San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore, while the comuni with the shortest name are Lu, Ro, Ne, Re and Vo'.
The population density of the comuni varies widely by province and region. The province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, for example, has 381,091 inhabitants in 10 comuni, or over 39,000 inhabitants per comune; whereas the province of Isernia has 81,415 inhabitants in 52 comuni, or 1,640 inhabitants per comune—roughly 24 times more communal units per inhabitant.
The coats of arms of the comuni are assigned by decree of the Prime Minister of Italy by the Office of State Ceremonial and Honors, Honors and Heraldry Service.

Subdivisions

Administrative subdivisions within comuni vary according to their population size.
Comuni with at least 250,000 residents are divided into Circoscrizione to which the comune delegates administrative functions such as the running of schools, social services and waste collection; the delegated functions vary from comune to comune. These bodies are headed by an elected president and a local council.
Smaller comuni usually comprise:

A main city, town or village, that almost always gives its name to the comune; such a place is referred to as the capoluogo of the comune; the word comune is also used in casual speech to refer to the city hall.
Outlying areas often called frazione, each usually centred on a small town or village. These frazioni usually never had pasts as independent settlements, but occasionally are former smaller comuni consolidated into a larger one. They may also represent settlements which predate the capoluogo. The ancient town of Pollentia, for instance, is a frazione of Bra. In recent years the frazioni have become more important due to the institution of the consiglio di frazione, a local form of government which can interact with the comune to address local needs, requests and claims. Even smaller places are called località.
Smaller administrative divisions called Municipio, which are similar to districts and neighbourhoods.

Sometimes a frazione might be more populated than the capoluogo; and rarely, owing to unusual circumstances, the town hall and its administrative functions can be moved to one of the frazioni, but the comune still retains the name of the capoluogo.
In some cases, a comune might not have the same name as the capoluogo. In these cases, it is a comune sparso and the frazione which hosts the town hall is a sede municipale.

''Rione''

Some towns refer to neighborhoods within a comune as a rione or a contrada. The term originated from the administrative divisions of Rome, and is derived from the Latin word regio, 'region'. All currently extant rioni are located in Municipio I of Rome. The term has been adopted as a synonym of quartiere in the Italian comuni. Terzieri, quartieri, sestieri, rioni, and their analogues are usually no longer administrative divisions of these towns, but historical and traditional communities, seen especially in towns' annual Palio.

''Terziere''

A terziere is a subdivision of several towns in Italy. The word derives from and is thus used only for towns divided into three neighborhoods. Terzieri are most commonly found in Umbria, for example in Trevi, Spello, Narni and Città della Pieve; towns divided into terzieri in other regions include Lucca in Tuscany, and Ancona and Macerata in the Marches. The medieval Lordship of Negroponte, on the island of Euboea, was also divided into three distinct rulerships, which were known as terzieri.

''Quartiere''

A quartiere is a territorial subdivision, properly used, for towns divided into four neighborhoods by the two main roads. It has been later used as a synonymous of neighbourhood, and an Italian town can be now subdivided into a larger number of quartieri. The Swiss town of Lugano is also subdivided into quarters.
The English word quarter to mean an urban neighbourhood is derived from the cognate old French word quartier.

''Sestiere''

A sestiere is a subdivision of certain Italian towns and cities. The word is from sesto, so it is thus used only for towns divided into six districts. The best-known example is the sestieri of Venice, but Ascoli Piceno, Genoa, Milan and Rapallo, for example, were also divided into sestieri. The medieval Lordship of Negroponte, on the island of Euboea, was also at times divided into six districts, each with a separate ruler, through the arbitration of Venice, which were known as sestieri. The island of Crete, a Venetian colony from the Fourth Crusade, was also divided into six parts, named after the sestieri of Venice herself, while the capital Candia retained the status of a comune of Venice. The island of Burano north of Venice is also subdivided into sestieri.
A variation of the word is occasionally found: the comune of Leonessa, for example, is divided into sesti or sixths.

Homonymy

There are not many perfect homonymous comuni. There are only five cases in 10 comuni:

Castro: Castro, Apulia and Castro, Lombardy
Livo: Livo, Lombardy and Livo, Trentino
Peglio: Peglio, Lombardy and Peglio, Marche
Samone: Samone, Piedmont and Samone, Trentino
San Teodoro: San Teodoro, Sardinia and San Teodoro, Sicily

This is mostly due to the fact the name of the province or region was appended to the name of the comune in order to avoid the confusion. Two provincial capitals share the name Reggio: Reggio nell'Emilia, the capital of the province of Reggio Emilia, in the Emilia-Romagna region, and Reggio di Calabria, the capital of the homonymous metropolitan city, in the Calabria region. Many other towns or villages are likewise partial homonyms.

Title of city

The title of città in Italy is granted to comuni that have been awarded it by decree of the King of Italy or of the provisional head of state or, subsequently, of the President of the Republic, on the proposal of the Ministry of the Interior, to which the comune concerned sends an application for a concession, by virtue of their historical, artistic, civic or demographic importance.
The comuni endowed with the title of città usually carry the golden crown above their coat of arms, except with different provisions in the decree approving the coat of arms or in the presence). "The crown of the city is formed by a golden circle opened by eight city gates with two cordoned walls on the margins, supporting eight towers joined by curtain walls, all in gold and black walled."

Statistics

Largest by area

The following is a list of the largest comuni in Italy, in descending order of surface area, according to ISTAT data referring to 9 October 2011. The provincial capitals are highlighted in bold.

Rank	Comune	Region	Province	Area
1	Rome	Lazio	Rome
2	Ravenna	Emilia-Romagna	Ravenna
3	Cerignola	Apulia	Foggia
4	Noto	Sicily	Syracuse
5	Sassari	Sardinia	Sassari
6	Monreale	Sicily	Palermo
7	Gubbio	Umbria	Perugia
8	Foggia	Apulia	Foggia
9	L'Aquila	Abruzzo	L'Aquila
10	Grosseto	Tuscany	Grosseto
11	Perugia	Umbria	Perugia
12	Ragusa	Sicily	Ragusa
13	Altamura	Apulia	Bari
14	Caltanissetta	Sicily	Caltanissetta
15	Venice	Veneto	Venice
16	Viterbo	Lazio	Viterbo
17	Ferrara	Emilia-Romagna	Ferrara
18	Andria	Apulia	Barletta-Andria-Trani
19	Matera	Basilicata	Matera
20	Città di Castello	Umbria	Perugia
21	Gravina in Puglia	Apulia	Bari
22	Arezzo	Tuscany	Arezzo
23	Olbia	Sardinia	Sassari
24	Caltagirone	Sicily	Catania
25	Manciano	Tuscany	Grosseto
26	Enna	Sicily	Enna
27	Manfredonia	Apulia	Foggia
28	Spoleto	Umbria	Perugia
29	Corigliano-Rossano	Calabria	Cosenza
30	Cortona	Tuscany	Arezzo