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In Italy, a province (provincia) is an administrative division of intermediate level between a municipality (comune) and a region (regione).

Overview

A province is composed of many municipalities, and usually several provinces form a region. The region of Aosta Valley is the only one that, strictly speaking, has no provinces: the administrative functions of its province are provided by the corresponding regional government; however, loosely speaking, it is seen as a single province.

The three main functions devolved to provinces are:

• Local planning and zoning
• Provision of local police and fire services.
• Transportation regulation (car registration, maintenance of local roads, etc.)

The number of provinces in Italy has been steadily growing in recent years, as many new ones are carved out of older ones, sometimes being limited to less than a hundred thousands inhabitants per province (a smaller population than several comuni). There are 110 provinces in Italy. Lombardy has the most provinces, with 12. The list below highlights in bold the province whose administrative capital is also the administrative capital of its region. Note that ISO 3166-2:IT lists all two-letter codes for the provinces.

Each province is headed by a President assisted by a representative body, the Provincial Council, and an executive body, the Provincial Executive. President and members of Council are elected together by resident citizens: the coalition of the elected President (who needs an absolute majority in the first or second round of voting) gains the three fifths of the Council's seats. The Executive is chaired by President who appoint others members, called assessori.

In each province there is also a Prefect (prefetto), a representative of central government who heads an agency called prefettura-ufficio territoriale del governo. The Questor (questore) is the head of State's Police (Polizia di Stato) in the province and his office is called questura. There is also a province's police force depending from local government, called provincial police (polizia provinciale).

The South Tyrol and Trentino are a case sui generis. They are autonomous provinces: unlike all other provinces they have the same legislative powers of regions and are not subordinated to the region they are part of, namely the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.

List of Italian Provinces

Former provinces

Historical abolished provinces

• Province of Aosta (Italian: Provincia di Aosta) (1927–1945). Became the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley in 1948.
• Province of Terra di Lavoro (Italian: Provincia di Terra di Lavoro ) (1861–1927). Was divided into the current provinces of Frosinone, Latina and Caserta.

Provinces of Istria and Dalmatia

• Province of Zadar (Italian: Provincia di Zara) (1923–1947). Was a part of the Governorship of Dalmatia. It remained nominally a part of the Italian Social Republic after the Italian capitulation.
• Province of Pula (Italian: Provincia di Pola) (1923–1947). Was occupied by Germany in September 1943 and was administered as a part of the German Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral.
• Province of Rijeka (Italian: Provincia di Fiume) (1924–1947). Was occupied by Germany in September 1943 and was administered as a part of the German Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral.

Provinces established during World War II

• Province of Ljubljana (Italian: Provincia di Lubiana) (1941–1943). Was occupied by Germany in September 1943 and was administered as a part of the German Operation Zone of the Adriatic Littoral.
• Province of Split (Italian: Provincia di Spalato) (1941–1943). Was a part of the Governorship of Dalmatia. Was occupied by Germany in September 1943 and annexed by the Independent State of Croatia.
• Province of Kotor (Italian: Provincia di Cattaro) (1941–1943). Was a part of the Governorship of Dalmatia. Was occupied by Germany in September 1943 and annexed by the Independent State of Croatia.

Colonial provinces

• Province of Rhodes (Italian: Provincia di Rodi ) (1923–1947) or Italian Aegean Islands (Italian: Isole italiane dell'Egeo) . It remained nominally a part of the Italian Social Republic after the Italian capitulation.

• Italian Libya was divided into four provinces and one territory (Southern Military Territory or Territory of Saharan Libya). From 1939 onward the provinces were a part of metropolitan Italy.
  • Province of Tripoli (Italian: Provincia di Tripoli) (1937–1943).
  • Province of Misurata (Italian: Provincia di Misurata) (1937–1943).
  • Province of Benghazi (Italian: Provincia di Bengasi) (1937–1943).
  • Province of Derna (Italian: Provincia di Derna) (1937–1943).

Theoretical provinces

• Province of the Western Alps (Italian: Provincia di Alpi Occidentali). Planned WWII province to be created of the annexed French territories of the Alpes Maritimes (including the Principality of Monaco) and parts of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Hautes Alpes and Savoie. The town of Briançon (Italian: Brianzone) was to act as the provincial capital.

See also

• Regions of Italy
• ISO 3166-2:IT

References and Notes