Provinces of Italy

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	Constitution; President Giorgio Napolitano; ; Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; Council of Ministers; ; Parliament Legislatures; Senate; Chamber of Deputies; ; Constitutional Court; Court of Cassation; Court of Assizes; Gazzetta Ufficiale; Political parties The People of Freedom; Democratic Party; ; General elections: 2006, 2008; Referenda; Regions; Provinces; Municipalities; Foreign relations;
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Italian Republic
	Italian Republic
	; This article is part of the series:; Politics and government of; Italy
	Constitution; President Giorgio Napolitano; ; Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; Council of Ministers; ; Parliament Legislatures; Senate; Chamber of Deputies; ; Constitutional Court; Court of Cassation; Court of Assizes; Gazzetta Ufficiale; Political parties The People of Freedom; Democratic Party; ; General elections: 2006, 2008; Referenda; Regions; Provinces; Municipalities; Foreign relations;
	Other countries · Atlas; Politics portal; view • talk • edit

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In Italy, a province (in Italian: provincia) is an administrative division of intermediate level between municipality (comune) and region (regione).

A province is composed of many municipalities, and usually several provinces form a region. The region of Aosta Valley is the only one that, strictly speaking, has no provinces: the administrative functions of its province are provided by the corresponding regional government; however, loosely speaking, it is seen as a single province.

The three main functions devolved to provinces are:

Local planning and zoning
Provision of local police and fire services.
Transportation regulation (Car registration, maintenance of local roads...)

The number of provinces in Italy has been steadily growing in recent years, as many new ones are carved out of older ones, sometimes being limited to less than a hundred thousands inhabitants per province (a smaller population than several comuni). As of 2006^[update], there are 110 provinces in Italy (including Aosta Valley), three of which are newly organized, and will be effective only as of 2009. The list below highlights in bold the province whose administrative capital is also the administrative capital of its region. Note that ISO 3166-2:IT lists all two-letter codes for the provinces.

Each province is headed by a President (presidente) assisted by a legislative body, the Consiglio Provinciale, and an executive body, the Giunta Provinciale. President and members of Consiglio Provinciale are elected by resident citizens; Giunta Provinciale is chaired by President who appoint others members, called assessori.

In each province there is also a Prefect (prefetto), a representative of central government who heads an agency called prefettura-ufficio territoriale del governo. Questor (questore) is the head of State's Police (Polizia di Stato) in province and his office is called questura. There is also a province's police force depending from local government, called Polizia Provinciale (Provincial Police).

The provinces are listed below alphabetically, by region: