Italy’s largest cities
Italy has a great variety of landscapes and cities.
Northern Italy is usually contrasted with Southern Italy. One is more oriented toward industry and services, and the other (i.e. the South) is oriented towards agriculture and tourism. Here is an overview of the largest cities in Italy.
Here are 20 of the biggest Italian cities to discover during a trip to Italy:
1. Rome, the eternal capital
The beautiful city of Rome has 2,874,000 inhabitants (Intra murros).
The economic and political capital of the country, Rome is, without doubt, the largest city in Italy. Rich in a thousand-year-old history, this city never stops fascinating and surprising travelers. It is one of the most beautiful cities in Italy.
The city was founded in 753 BC. And Rome is also the capital of the Lazio region.
2. Milan, the great economic capital of the North
1,350,680 people live in Milan.
Milan is considered the economic capital of northern Italy. It is also one of the fashion capitals of the world.
In addition to these characteristics of economic capital, Milan frequently sees its population “divided” between two camps, as the city has two famous soccer clubs. Inter Milan and AC Milan.
3. Naples, the capital of the south
Naples has a population of 989,553, but with the agglomeration, it has a population of about 3 million.
The “capital” of southern Italy, Naples, Napoli in Italian, is an atypical city that you must visit.
To better understand the city and its inhabitants you can go to a soccer match involving Napoli. It is likely that the excessiveness and fanaticism of its fans – its tiffosis – will not leave you indifferent!
4. Turin
Turin has 897,265 inhabitants. The area of the city is 130 km², which gives a density of 6,902 inhabitants per km² (November 2014 figure).
The city of Turin is located in Piedmont and its history dates back to the III century BC.
Turin is therefore located at the foot of the Alps. The lowest altitude of the city is 240 meters and the highest part is 715 meters.
The city is crossed from north to south by a river, the Po, which cuts the city in two.
The climate of the city is continental. The winters are cold and the summers are hot. The rainfall is nevertheless very abundant with a peak in spring.
5. Palermo, one of the largest cities in Italy
The “capital” of Sicily has 676,118 inhabitants. Palermo is located on the northern coast of Sicily.
6. Genoa
592,995 inhabitants live in the city of Genoa. It is located in Liguria in the northwest of Italy.
In Italian “Genova,” it is the second largest port in the Mediterranean just after Marseille.
7. Bologna
“Bologna the Red”
Bologna has a population of 386,298 inhabitants. The first university in Western Europe was founded in this city.
8. Florence (Firenze)
This is the home of the Medici family, a powerful dynasty that ruled Florence, Firenze in Italian.
380,226 inhabitants live in Florence, the capital of Tuscany. The jewel of the Renaissance.
9. Bari
There are about 321,000 inhabitants.
Bari, the resistant. It is indeed the high place of the Orthodox Church in the West. But it is also the largest commercial port on the Adriatic Sea.
10. Catania
With 315,576 inhabitants, Catania is a city located in the southeast of Sicily and is the second largest city on the island after Palermo. Together with the agglomeration, there are almost half a million people living in Catania and its surroundings.
Having been ravaged in 1693 by a terrible earthquake, Catania was completely rebuilt in the late Baroque style and is therefore included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
11. Venice
The favorite city of all lovers.
The most beautiful city in the world is in the eleventh place. This a good position especially for a city that sees its inhabitants moving away one by one. And this is because of the pressure of tourism and housing prices that continue to rise.
12. Verona
A world-famous city, Verona is the place chosen by William Shakespeare for the romance of Romeo and Juliet. Verona is a very beautiful and romantic Italian city.
The city has 263,964 inhabitants (see 2011 figures). The area of the city is about 206 km². That is to say a density of 1 277 inhabitants per km².
13. Messina
This beautiful Italian city is located on the Mediterranean Sea, east of Sicily. Messina is a very old city that reached its peak between the end of the Middle Ages and the middle of the 17th century. Its fall is due as well to the revolts in 1678 and 1848, the city will be destroyed on these occasions. But also because of a major earthquake in 1783. In 1908 a new earthquake. Note the nearby presence of the volcano Vesuvius.
The city has 240,307 inhabitants, it extends over 211 km², and has a density of 1,139 inhabitants per km².
The key position of the city of Messina on the eponymous strait makes it a trading port and a fairly active military port.
Its foundation dates back to antiquity in the VIII century BC.
14. Padua
The population of the city of Padua amounts to 210,600 inhabitants. The city is located in the Veneto region. It covers an area of 92 km², so the density of the city is 2,290 inhabitants per km².
Padua is located in the Po Valley, 40 km from Venice, 29 km from Vicenza, and 100 km from Bologna.
The creation of this city dates back to antiquity, the city hosts the oldest botanical garden in Europe which dates back to 1545 (greenhouse with orchids, Himalayan cedar, magnolia, Ginko, a palm tree planted in 1585 called Goethe’s palm.
The city has long been famous for its university founded in 1222.
15. Trieste
Situated on the border with Slovenia, the city is located on the Adriatic Sea and is in the northeast of the country. Trieste is an old city with a Roman past. The city covers an area of 84.5 km². There were 204,335 people recorded in the census in 2017.
16. Brescia
A little-known city in Italy, Brescia is located in the Lombardy region in the north of the country. And more precisely at the foot of the Alps in the Po plain. And it is about 196 670 inhabitants live in the city. The surface of the city is 90,7 km².
2 monuments are not to be missed in Brescia, they are Santa Giulia and a Roman forum. Both of them are registered in Unesco’s patrimony.
17. Parma
The city of Parma has 194,417,214 inhabitants. (Census 2017) And the area of the city is 260.7 square meters.
The inhabitants of the city are called Parmigiani. Needless to say, the city is world-famous for its “Parma ham” and its cheese Parmesan.
18. Prato
Located in Tuscany, Prato has 192,500 inhabitants. It covers an area of 97.5 km².
In the vicinity of the city of Prato, there is the fabulous Medicean Villa of Poggio in Caiano. The creation of this Villa of Poggio served among other things as a model for the architects of the Renaissance. The influences of this villa can be found in France with the castle of Vaux le Vicomte.
19. Taranto
Located in the south of Italy, Taranto has a population of about 188,374 and is the sixteenth largest city in Italy. Taranto is a very old city that was a colony of the Spartans in ancient times.
The city has a density of 884 inhabitants per square kilometer and covers an area of 217 km².
20. Reggio Calabria
182,550 inhabitants live in Reggio, a beautiful Italian city located in the extreme south of the country.
Did you know?
There are twenty regions in Italy, but also 110 provinces with 8100 municipalities and 16,253 cities.
Almost 60 million people live in Italy. In the last counting operation, 59,464,644 people were counted. The majority of the Italian population lives in the twenty largest cities of Italy.
The surface area of the country is 301,336 km².