Re-defining the Boundaries of Major Italian Cities

The processes of spatial polarization and territorial integration that have taken place in Italy since the 1950s have not been accompanied by corresponding institutional adaptations, generating the current huge discrepancy between the functional and politicaladministrative organization of the territory. It is argued that this institutional lock-in is rooted in a mistaken conceptualization of territorial integration, which has focused solely on the identification of the emerging functional urban areas', neglecting the fundamental phenomenon of the formation of inter-municipal territorial systems which have acquired the nature of cities de facto. On the basis of both functional and morphological features, this paper identifies the cities de facto with regard to the eight largest Italian cities de jure.