ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an informed overview of the Italian system of local government and metropolitan cities, with a view to discussing both limits and potential of the current scenario and to making a comparison with other Western European experiences. The chapter is divided into three parts: the first concerns the legal history of Italian local government, the second discusses the introduction of a new legislation devoted to establishing metropolitan cities in Italy and then analyses the seminal judgment of the Constitutional Court on this reform, and the third focuses on the comparative relevance of the Italian experience on metropolitan cities.
