Italian comuni and frazioni
Politically speaking Italy is divided into Regions and each region includes several provinces. Within each province there are communities (towns or cities) or administrative divisions called comuni.
Frazioni (fractions)
Many populated centres administratively depend on other comuni and are known literally as frazioni. These comuni have a historic identity and their own culture but they depend on the head comune which governs them with regard to paper work, education, supplies and work among others.
Not all the Italian comuni include one or several frazioni within their jurisdiction. Some Italian frazioni are somewhat autonomous, for example, they may have a civil registry office, a deputy mayor and the chance of their own government regarding basic needs.
The Italian frazioni ordered alphabetically
Other inhabited centres
There are other inhabited centres defined by the Italian Statistics Office (ISTAT) as a “locality” an area which lack the typical town centre, formed by a group of adjacent and neighbouring houses with at least five families, with streets, lanes, squares, pens, small orchards and small similar pieces of land and scattered houses”. Many times these inhabited centres have their own name and do not constitute a fraction.
In all, there are about 8,100 Italian comuni and 37,000 frazioni and the number of small inhabited places is 16,000.