The Author examines the recent italian proposed legislative reform of the metropolitan cities. A criticism is devoted to the fact that the metropolitan cities are, de facto, metropolitan Provinces and not a network of strictly connected local communities. The author remarks that this reform satisfies a political logic but not a scientific logic. When Parliament omits any scientific method in the definition of a metropolitan city the consequence is a reform whose destiny is probably a sharp failure. A consequence of this is that some metropolitan cities, so defined by Parliament, have not metropolitan characteristics, while some real metropolitan areas have not been indicated by Parliament. Following the author, a specific attention should be paid to the anthropological dimension of the metropolitan city.
Keywords: Governance of the metropolitan cities, metropolitan identities
Jel Code: R5, R28.