Provinces of Italy

[3] In each province, there is also a Prefect (prefetto), a representative of the central government who heads an agency called prefettura-ufficio territoriale del governo.

However, at that time the national territory was smaller than the current one: regions of Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and Lazio were not included in the kingdom.

There were therefore nine more provinces: Belluno, Mantua, Padua, Rovigo, Treviso, Venice, Verona, Vicenza, and Udine, all previously part of the Austrian Empire.

17 new provinces were created: Aosta, Vercelli, Varese, Savona, Bolzano, Gorizia, Pistoia, Pescara, Rieti, Terni, Viterbo, Frosinone, Brindisi, Matera, Ragusa, Castrogiovanni, Nuoro.

In the same year, the province of Caserta was dissolved, Girgenti was renamed Agrigento, and the institution of circondari, sub-provincial wards created before the unification, was abolished.

In a reorganization in 1992 eight provinces were created: Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Biella, Lecco, Lodi, Rimini, Prato, Crotone, and Vibo Valentia, while Forlì was renamed as Forlì-Cesena.

[15] In 2014 the Delrio Law[16] transformed the provinces of Italy in a reduced number of broader administrative entities.

[17] In 2014 the Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Debora Serracchiani was the first Italian region to pass a law for abolishing its provinces, while implementing the national reform in the local administrative level.

[21][22][23] The difficulty of changing the Constitution of Italy and the opposition of groups of politicians and citizens halted any proposal of reform.

[24][25] In 2013, during his speech to the Chamber of Deputies, Enrico Letta, the newly appointed Prime Minister of Italy, announced that a revision of the second part of the constitution was needed, in order to change the bicameral parliamentary system and to abolish the provinces.

The proposal, presented during the Renzi government, was rejected in the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum held on 4 December.