Metropolitan governance and metropolitan cities in Italy: outdated solutions for processes of urban regionalisation?

A form of metropolitan government in Italy was originally introduced in 1990. After 25 years, the approval of Law 56/2014 has opened a new season of experimentation, full of expectations but at the same time not exempt from critique. The paper presents and discusses the elements of innovation and path-dependency that have shaped the current normative framework, explaining in particular the climate under which the new law was adopted. The author critically focuses on three main problematic aspects of the law that institutes the new città metropolitana, i. e. the definition of boundaries, the nature of the new institution, and its competences and tools for action, considering their ability to deal with the challenges related to the processes of regional urbanisation affecting contemporary Italy.