Ten Important Cities of Italy
1. Rome - Roma
Rome is the capital of Italy and of its Latium region. It is located across the confluence of the Tiber and Aniene rivers. It was once the capital of the Roman Empire, the most powerful, largest, and longest lasting empire of classical Western civilization. The Vatican, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and the home of the Pope.
2. Venice - Venezia
Nicknamed of Venezi is "city of canals", is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice in Italy. Its population is 271,664. The city is included, with Padua (Padova), in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, population 1,600,000.
3. Florence - Firenze
Florence is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy. It lies on the Arno River and has a population of around 400,000 people, plus a suburban population in excess of 200,000 persons. The greater area has some 956,000 people. A center of medieval European trade and finance, the city is often considered the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and was long ruled by the Medici family. Florence is also famous for its fine art and architecture. It is said that, of the 1,000 most important European artists of the second millennium, 350 lived or worked in Florence.
4. Turin - Torino
Torino is a major industrial city in north-western Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the west bank of the Po River. The population of the city of Turin is 908,000 (2004 census); its metropolitan area totals about 1.7 million inhabitants. The province is one of the largest in Italy, with 6,830 square kilometres (2,637 sq. mi), and one of the most populous, aprox 2,236,941.
5. Milan - Milano
Milano is the main city of northern Italy, and is located in the plains of Lombardy, the most populated and developed region in Italy, being often mistaken with the capital of the country. The city proper has about 1,308,500, but the population of the urban area is 4,280,820 people.
6. Naples - Napoli
The city has a population of about 1 million. By one count the metropolitan area of Naples is the second largest in Italy after that of Milan, with over 4,200,000 inhabitants. As with most major cities, various other urban and metropolitan area population figures are also available. The inhabitants are known as Neapolitans, napulitane in Neapolitan, napoletani or poetically partenopei in Italian. It is located halfway between the volcano, Vesuvius and a separate volcanic area, the Campi Flegrei, all part of the Campanian volcanic arc.
7. Bologna
The importance of Bologna in Italy and in Europe, considered from the points of view of culture, industry, trade, social, political, economy etc., is much greater than suggested by its demographic data: about 400,000 inhabitants in the city, about 1 million in the metropolitan area, including over 100,000 students of the ancient and renowned University of Bologna, founded in the 11th century.
8. Perugia
Perugia gave its nickname to the famous painter Perugino (Pietro Vannucci), who lived and worked there. Another famous painter, Pinturicchio, lived in Perugia.
9. Genoa - Genova
Genova is a city and a seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. The city has a population of ca. 601,338, the metropolitan area has a population of ca. 871,733.
10. Padua - Padova
The city is included, with Venice, in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, population 1,600,000. Its agricultural setting is the Pianura Padovana, the "Paduan plain," edged by the Euganaean Hills praised by Lucan and Martial, Petrarch, Ugo Foscolo, and Shelley. The city is picturesque, with a dense network of arcaded streets opening into large communal piazze, and many bridges crossing the various branches of the Bacchiglione, which once surrounded the ancient walls like a moat.