Pending regional review, Premier Mario Monti's government is moving to dissolve 64 provincial governments—63 per cent of the current 107 provinces—as part of a 26 billion euro "spending review" package.
The majority of regions have retained three to five provinces, primarily around urban areas. Any province with fewer than 350.000 residents and 2.500 square kilometres is slated to be cut in a move that has been due for many years because of redundancies between municipal, provincial and regional governments.
Ten of the remaining provinces are planned to be transformed into metropolitan areas on the first of January in 2014, including Florence, Milan, Naples, Rome, and Venice.
In five regions, only one province remains. Tuscany will lose nine of its current ten provinces, keeping only Florence, while Sardinia sheds seven provinces, leaving only Cagliari. Umbria will be left with only Perugia, Molise with Campobasso, and Basilicata with Potenza.
Major cities in northern Italy, including Turin, Cuneo, and Alexandria in Piedmont; Milan, Brescia, Bergamo, and Pavia in Lombardy; Venice, Verona, and Vicenza in the Veneto; and Bologna, Parma, Modena, and Ferrara in Emilia Romagna, have maintained their provincial governments.
In the south, Campania has kept all but Benevento and Calabria all but Crotone and Vibo Valentia. Sicily and Puglia will both lose half their provinces, with Sicily keeping Palermo, Agrigento, Catania, and Messina, and Puglia retaining Bari, Foggia, and Lecce.
Five regions will retain only two of their provinces, with Genoa and La Spezia remaining in Liguria, Ancona Pesaro and Urbino in Le Marche, Rome and Frosinone in Lazio, L'Aquila and Chieti in Abruzzo, and Trieste and Udine in Friuli.
