According to trackaah, Italy is divided into 20 regions, 5 of which (Sardinia, Sicily, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the Aosta Valley) enjoy a special autonomous status. Except for the Aosta Valley, the regions are subdivided into provinces. The former provinces of Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Bari, Florence, Bologna, Genoa, Venice and Reggio Calabria have been called metropolitan cities (Città metropolitane) since 2015/16 and have received additional functions. The municipalities are below the provinces. Each region has a regional council elected for a period of five years and a regional government (Giunta regional) elected by it, which is responsible to the regional council.
Administrative division in Italy
Italy: Administrative Division (2016)
Region (capital)
Area (in km 2)
Population
Residents (per km 2)
Piedmont (Turin)
25 399
4,392,500
173
Aosta Valley *) (Aosta)
3,263
126 900
39
Liguria (Genoa)
5 421
1,565,300
289
Lombardy (Milan)
23 861
10 019 200
420
Trentino-South Tyrol *)(Trento)
13 607
1 062 900
78
Veneto (Venice)
18 379
4 907 500
267
Friuli-Venezia Giulia *)(Trieste)
7 844
1,217,900
155
Emilia-Romagna (Bologna)
22 451
4,448,800
198
Tuscany (Florence)
22 993
3 742 400
163
Umbria (Perugia)
8 456
888 900
105
Brands (Ancona)
9 366
1 538 100
164
Lazio (Rome)
17 207
5 898 100
343
Abruzzo (L’Aquila)
10 795
1,322,200
122
Molise (Campobasso)
4,438
310 400
70
Campania (Naples)
13 595
5 839 100
430
Apulia (Bari)
19 363
4,063,900
210
Basilicata (Potenza)
9 992
570 400
57
Calabria (Catanzaro)
15 080
1 965 100
130
Sicily *) (Palermo)
25 707
5 056 600
197
Sardinia *) (Cagliari)
24 090
1 653 100
69
*) autonomous region
Italy under the German rulers (951–1254)
Initially Otto tried to rule over Berengar II, defeated in 951 but enfeoffed with Italy, as sub-king of imperial Italy. When Pope John XII. but felt threatened by Berengar, he called Otto to help and offered him the imperial crown. On February 2, 962, Otto was crowned and anointed in Rome as the successor to Charlemagne. As a result of the weak imperial power base in Upper and Central Italy, the German rulers had to rely on local princes and powerful people; v. a. the bishops also assumed politico-military rights and duties. Many of them were used by the Crown.
With the beginning of the Crusades, the cities began to move upwards. Despite all the losses suffered since late antiquity, the degree of urbanization in Italy was considerably higher than north of the Alps. Now the citizens were pushing for autonomy. During the disputes of the investiture controversy, Emperor Heinrich IV granted Lucca and Pisa far-reaching rights; elsewhere, the citizenry appropriated the regiment by force. As with the Worms Concordat (1122) the investiture dispute ended and the crown could no longer influence the appointment of the bishops, the autonomous municipalities had already largely replaced them politically. The communal movement itself seized Rome; the sermons of Arnold von Brescia reinforced the intentions of the city republic and the criticism of the secular church.
Individual groups of Normans had established themselves in southern Italy since the beginning of the 11th century. They expanded their power at the expense of the Lombard dukes, the Byzantines and finally the Saracens. Duke Robert Guiscard already pursued a policy that included the entire Mediterranean region. a. was directed against Byzantium. Abuses against the Papal States repeatedly led to armed conflicts with the popes, who sought support from the emperors; several times German armies advanced far to the south of the Apennine peninsula. In between there were times when the Normans supported the popes when they got into tension with the emperors. Robert Guiscard became papal vassal in 1059; in 1085 he saved Pope Gregory VII from the army of Henry IV. Above all, Roger II proved to be a skilful, if unscrupulous politician and effective ruler. Under him Sicily – d. H. all of southern Italy including the island kingdom, the reward of the antipope Anaclet II for his only ally. After a victorious battle, Roger extorted his recognition from the rightful Pope Innocent II in the Treaty of Mignano (1139) . A powerful monarchy, which was extremely unusual for that time, was created, which was temporarily unique due to its eclectic culture and the tolerance towards Saracens, Jews and Greeks, but also due to the concentration of the means of power in the hands of the crown.
Frederick I Barbarossa had promised the papacy to act against the Normans, who had been weakened since the death of Rogers II (1154)after the coronation of the emperor (1155), but the German princes refused to support him. In six Italian campaigns since 1154, the emperor tried to re-consolidate rule in upper and central Italy against the communal autonomies with their self-elected officials (consuls, first in Pisa in the 1080s), and last but not least in this richly growing area to improve the fiscal basis of imperial power (Diet of Roncaglia 1158). Despite spectacular successes (including the capitulation and razing of Milan in 1162), he ultimately failed due to the power of the Lombard League, which was allied with the papacy(furnished at the end of 1167). In 1183 peace was concluded in Piacenza and Constance, which, compared to the original starting points, brought more advantages for the municipalities than for the imperial side. The Staufer rule over Italy seemed through the marriage of the heir to the throne Henry VI. with Constanze, the heir to Rogers II, decisively strengthened. But the papacy could not accept the fact that the papal state was embraced by the imperial power in the north and south. After Heinrich ‘s early death (1197), Innocent III tried . to break the Hohenstaufen encirclement and to consolidate the secular rule of the Apostolic See. The conflicts of interest between papal and secular power broke out openly under Frederick II. The emperor’s program, which was also based on ideas of ancient Roman greatness in the times of Augustus, to restore the empire against the universal claims of the papacy and its Italian power in league with Guelfan communes and against the autonomies granted to them in 1183 failed with his death in 1250. His only legitimate one Son Conrad IV succumbed to an infectious disease as early as 1254, rule in Sicily came to his half-brother Manfred who could not raise any inheritance claims on Germany and imperial Italy.
