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Importance and function

The ''comune'' provides many of the basic civil functions: registry of births and deaths, registry of deeds, contracting for local roads and public works, etc. It is headed by a mayor (''sindaco'') assisted by a council of aldermen, the ''Consiglio Comunale''. The offices of the ''comune'', referred to as the ''Municipio'', are housed in a building usually called the ''Palazzo Comunale''.

As of the 2001 census, there were 8,101 ''comuni'' in Italy; they vary considerably in area and population.

For example, the ''comune'' of Rome ( Lazio ) has an area of 1,285.30 sq. km and a population of 2,546,804, and is both the largest and the most populated ''comune'' in Italy; Fiera di Primiero, in the Province of Trento , is the smallest ''comune'' by area, with only 0.10 sq. km, and Morterone (province of Lecco ) is the smallest by population, with only 33 inhabitants.

The density of ''comuni'' varies widely by province and region: the Province Of Bari , for example, has 1,564,000 inhabitants in 48 municipalities, or over 32,000 inhabitants per municipality; whereas the Aosta Valley has 121,000 inhabitants in 74 municipalities, or 1,630 inhabitants per municipality — roughly twenty times more communal units per inhabitant. There are inefficiencies at both ends of the scale, and there is concern about optimizing the size of the comuni so they may best function in the modern world, but planners are hampered by the historical resonances of the comuni, which often reach back many hundreds of years, or even a full millennium: while provinces and regions are creations of the central government, and subject to fairly frequent border changes, the natural cultural unit is indeed the ''comune'', — for many Italians, their hometown: in recent years especially, it has thus become quite rare for ''comuni'' either to merge or to break apart.


Subdivisions


A ''comune'' usually comprises:
  • a principal town, that almost always gives its name to the ''comune''; such a town is referred to as the ''capoluogo'' of the ''comune''; the word ''comune'' is therefore naturally used in casual speech to refer to the town hall.

  • other outlying areas called ''frazioni'' (singular: ''frazione'', abbreviated ''Fraz.''), each usually headed by a small town or village: for fuller details, see the article '' Frazione ''. These ''frazioni'' have usually never had any independent historical existence, but occasionally are former smaller ''comuni'' consolidated into a larger. In recent years the ''frazioni'' have become less important. Yet smaller places are called ''località'' (sometimes, as in the phonebook, abbreviated ''Loc.'').

    • Some few ''frazioni'' are more populated than the ''capoluogo''; and very occasionally, due to unusual circumstances or to the depopulation of the latter, the town hall and its administrative functions move to one of the ''frazioni'': but the ''comune'' still retains the name of the ''capoluogo''.



See also