ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1990s in Italy there has been no urban policy focused on the development of larger cities. Financial resources have mostly been directed to improving urban accessibility and upgrading degraded areas. Urban policy aimed to limit further urbanisation and to improve the quality of urban life by eliminating the conditions that had determined urban degradation and overcoming the lack of infrastructures and services. Today, after desurbanisation, signs of a clear process of gentrification can be seen almost everywhere.
