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A comune (; pl. comuni, ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions (regioni) and provinces (province). The comune can also have the title of città ().
Formed praeter legem according to the principles consolidated in Medieval commune, the comune is provided for by article 114 of the Constitution of Italy. It can be divided into Frazione]], which in turn may have limited power due to special elective assemblies.
In the autonomous region of the Aosta Valley, a comune is officially called a commune in French.
All communal structures or schools, sports and cultural structures such as communal libraries, theaters, etc. are managed by the comuni. Comuni must have their own communal statute and have a climatic and seismic classification of their territory for the purposes of hazard mitigation and civil protection. Comuni also deal with the waste management.
It is headed by a mayor (sindaco or sindaca) assisted by a legislative body, the consiglio comunale (), and an executive body, the giunta comunale (). The mayor and members of the consiglio comunale are elected together by resident citizens: the coalition of the elected mayor (who needs a relative majority or an absolute majority in the first or second round of voting, depending on the population) gains three fifths of the consiglio's seats.
The giunta comunale is chaired by the mayor, who appoints others members, called assessori, one of whom serves as deputy mayor (vicesindaco). The offices of the comune are housed in a building usually called the municipio, or palazzo comunale ().
As of January 2021, there were 7,904 comuni in Italy; they vary considerably in size and population. For example, the comune of Rome, in Lazio, has an area of and a population of 2,758,454 inhabitants, and is both the largest and the most populated.
Atrani in the province of Salerno (Campania) was the smallest comune by area, with only , and Morterone (Lombardy) is the smallest by population. Many present-day comuni trace their roots along timescales spanning centuries and at times millennia.
The northernmost comune is Predoi, the southernmost one Lampedusa e Linosa, the westernmost Bardonecchia and the easternmost Otranto. The comune with the longest name is San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore, while the comuni with the shortest name are Lu, Ro, Ne, Re and Vo'.
The population density of the comuni varies widely by province and region. The province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, for example, has 381,091 inhabitants in 10 comuni, or over 39,000 inhabitants per comune; whereas the province of Isernia has 81,415 inhabitants in 52 comuni, or 1,640 inhabitants per comune—roughly 24 times more communal units per inhabitant.
The coats of arms of the comuni are assigned by decree of the Prime Minister of Italy by the Office of State Ceremonial and Honors, Honors and Heraldry Service (division of the Presidency of the Council born from the transformation of the Royal Consulta Araldica, eliminated pursuant to the provisions final of the Constitution of Italy).
| + Number of comuni and population in Italy |
| 2,872 |
| 3,256 |
| 3,505 |
| 3,989 |
| 4,306 |
| 4,285 |
| 5,614 |
| 5,777 |
| 6,084 |
| 6,300 |
| 6,720 |
| 6,994 |
| 7,023 |
| 7,036 |
| 7,345 |
| 7,494 |
Comuni with at least 250,000 residents are divided into Circoscrizione]] (roughly equivalent to French arrondissements or ) to which the comune delegates administrative functions such as the running of schools, social services and waste collection; the delegated functions vary from comune to comune. These bodies are headed by an elected president and a local council.
Smaller comuni usually comprise:
Sometimes a frazione might be more populated than the capoluogo; and rarely, owing to unusual circumstances (such as depopulation), the town hall and its administrative functions can be moved to one of the frazioni, but the comune still retains the name of the capoluogo.
In some cases, a comune might not have the same name as the capoluogo. In these cases, it is a comune sparso () and the frazione which hosts the town hall (municipio) is a sede municipale (compare county seat).
The English word quarter to mean an urban neighbourhood (e.g. the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana) is derived from the cognate old French word quartier.
]] A sestiere (: sestieri) is a subdivision of certain Italian towns and cities. The word is from sesto (), so it is thus used only for towns divided into six districts. The best-known example is the sestieri of Venice, but Ascoli Piceno, Genoa, Milan and Rapallo, for example, were also divided into sestieri. The medieval Lordship of Negroponte, on the island of Euboea, was also at times divided into six districts, each with a separate ruler, through the arbitration of Venice, which were known as sestieri. The island of Crete, a Venetian colony (the Kingdom of Candia) from the Fourth Crusade, was also divided into six parts, named after the sestieri of Venice herself, while the capital Heraklion retained the status of a comune of Venice. The island of Burano north of Venice is also subdivided into sestieri.
A variation of the word is occasionally found: the comune of Leonessa, for example, is divided into sesti or sixths.
This is mostly due to the fact the name of the province or region was appended to the name of the comune in order to avoid the confusion. Two provincial capitals share the name Reggio: Reggio Emilia, the capital of the province of Reggio Emilia, in the Emilia-Romagna region, and Reggio Calabria, the capital of the homonymous metropolitan city, in the Calabria region. Many other towns or villages are likewise partial homonyms (e.g. Anzola dell'Emilia and Anzola d'Ossola, or Bagnara Calabra and Bagnara di Romagna).
The comuni endowed with the title of città usually carry the golden crown above their coat of arms, except with different provisions in the decree approving the coat of arms or in the presence). "The crown of the city (...) is formed by a golden circle opened by eight city gates (five visible) with two cordoned walls on the margins, supporting eight towers (five visible) joined by curtain walls, all in gold and black walled."
| 846 067 |
| 628 883 |
| 560 155 |
| more than inhab. | 6 | 0.08% | 12.10% | |
| from to inhab. | 6 | 0.08% | 3.16% | |
| from to inhab. | 32 | 0.40% | 8.02% | |
| from to inhab. | 58 | 0.73% | 7.50% | |
| from to inhab. | 404 | 5.11% | 22.37% | |
| from to inhab. | 698 | 8.83% | 16.31% | |
| from to inhab. | 1,179 | 14.92% | 14.06% | |
| from to inhab. | 1,087 | 13.75% | 7.13% | |
| from to inhab. | 921 | 11.65% | 3.81% | |
| from to inhab. | 1,520 | 19.23% | 3.74% | |
| from 500 to 999 inhab. | 1,101 | 13.93% | 1.37% | |
| less than 500 inhab. | 892 | 11.29% | 0.44% | |
| more than inhab. | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||
| from to inhab. | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||
| from to inhab. | 17 | 5 | 10 | |||
| from to inhab. | 16 | 16 | 26 | |||
| from to inhab. | 158 | 78 | 168 | |||
| from to inhab. | 353 | 115 | 230 | |||
| from to inhab. | 672 | 155 | 352 | |||
| from to inhab. | 620 | 141 | 326 | |||
| from to inhab. | 501 | 100 | 320 | |||
| from to inhab. | 793 | 182 | 545 | |||
| from 500 to 999 inhab. | 627 | 110 | 364 | |||
| less than 500 inhab. | 622 | 64 | 206 | |||
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