Italy is divided into nineteen regions, which, in turn, are divided into provinces. Some of these regions have historical borders, for example, Tuscany, Lombardy or Venice, Other, such as Frjuli- Venezia Giulia or Molise, have been established recently, in recognition of their contemporary achievements. The sharpest division exists between north and south. Northern Italy is one of the most developed industrial regions in the world, characterized by extremely dynamic development of the economy. It is the main centre of the Italian Communist Party (the largest in Western Europe), whose influence extends to the central part of the peninsula. Northerners speak Italian with French or German influences, and the capital of the region, Milan, is a thoroughly European city. Southern Italy, known as il mezzogiorno, begins somewhere between Rome and Naples and is one of the weakest economic areas in Europe.. Unemployment (Ok. 20 %) is twice as large there as in the north, and production three times less. The presence of the mafia and the weakened influence of the central government in Rome are remnants of the system of absolute government that once prevailed here.. Southerners are dark-skinned and speak with a Mediterranean accent, which here and there sounds like Arabic. Capital of the south, Naples, is often compared to Cairo.
The South's economic weakness is partly the result of neglect, which was his participation during subsequent foreign occupations. But it is also the result of the deliberate desire of politicians and corporate executives to industrialize only the north and leave the south as a convenient source of labor.. Italy's northern-focused industrial power and dynamism were built at the expense of the southerners., millions of whom emigrated to the "industrial triangle"” (Turin, Milan, Genoa) in the fifties and sixties. Even today, Milan and Turin have numerous groups of meridionals — southerners, who work in every area of the economy. The effects of the north-south divide are encountered everywhere, throughout Italy. Memory of Naples, symbol of the south, in the presence of a northerner can cause a hostile reaction. In the shops in the north you could get a map-poster until recently (currently banned), in which the south was depicted as "Black Land"”, Sicily as "Gaddafi's Country"”, and Puglia as "Principality of Turkey"”. The same poster features a concentration camp for terroni in Turin ("those of the earth”, the offensive nickname of immigrants from the south). On the walls of the cities of the north you can see the inscriptions "Terroni go home”, and Liga Lombarda posters, party from Lombardy, which campaigns against the immigration of southerners to the north. This antagonism is also felt in the south.. After the Neapolitan-Ski football club won the national championship for the first time 1987 Year, fans marched through the streets of the city shouting "We are better than the north” and waved the flags of the American Confederacy.
After all, one should not imagine Italy in a state of civil war; the north-south divide is more evident in deep-seated rivalry than in direct action. What's more, even in a difficult economic situation, the South has developed industries, that contribute to the prosperity of the whole country. Many Italian political leaders and government officials also come from the south. (for example. Prime Ministers Aldo Moro and Ciriaco De Mita), and prominent writers and philosophers, for example. Verga, Pirandello, Silence, Vico, Croce and Gramsci.
Italy is divided into twenty regions.