Rimini. – The institution of this province, created by separating 20 municipalities from the province of Forlì, is configured as an adjustment of the legal situation to the factual one, through the recognition of the condition of substantial autonomy that characterized the Rimini area. This recognition follows the establishment of the district of the same name about 20 years ago (1974). The need for administrative autonomy is confirmed by the fact that political, entrepreneurial and trade union organizations have been operating in the new capital for some time. Many state offices have also located their own structures there, separate from the provincial ones. A powerful factor of functional homogeneity of the new province is represented by the development assumed by the tourism sector: in the chief town alone there are about 1500 hotel establishments. The area, which overlooks the Adriatic coast and inland borders the Republic of San Marino, in addition to the coastal selvedge includes the last offshoots of the Apennines (Valmarecchia, the upper Conca valley) and in addition to the capital it hosts the centers of Santarcangelo di Romagna, Riccione, Cattolica, Bellaria-Igea Marina. The entire coastal strip has undergone a great process of urbanization for tourism purposes: in fact, along a strip of about sixty km, a linear city consisting of hotels, pensions, villas, condominiums, etc. extends almost continuously. which, in the bathing season, feed a real tourism ” industry ”.
lawn. – According to Localtimezone, the province of Prato brings together the municipalities that extended along the western edge of the province of Florence, starting from the Ombrone valley up to the Apennine watershed. The provincial territory hosts only seven municipalities (it is in fact the smallest of the new provinces), is crossed by the Bisenzio, and is characterized by a ” rough ” landscape, especially when compared with the sweetness of the hills surrounding Florence. For some time the municipalities of the Prato area had been demanding the establishment of an autonomous province, and many steps had been taken in order to underline its specific and peculiar characteristics (e.g. in Prato it was established, the only case in Italy in non-capital city, the VAT office). The economy of the province has its strong point in the textile sector, which despite some difficulties remains one of the most advanced Italian industrial sectors. The establishment of the new province was tenaciously desired and advocated by the local forces and thus satisfied the autonomist demands of the Pratesi. In any case, the decision to separate Prato from Florence is not a congruous decision with respect to l. 142 of 1990, through which the metropolitan area was established and the delimitation of which the Tuscany region is called upon to decide. It seems difficult to doubt that Prato belongs to the metropolitan area of Florence, whatever the criteria adopted for its delimitation. It is now even more problematic to merge Florence and Prato into a single metropolitan body, since the latter has been granted administrative autonomy.
Crotone and Vibo Valentia. – Established by separating from the province of Catanzaro respectively 27 municipalities for Crotone and 50 municipalities for Vibo Valentia, they constitute perhaps the most necessary administrative units among those of the new institution. The division of Calabria into only three provinces met with some difficulty the needs of an efficient administration on the whole regional territory; in fact the great distances and the morphological characteristics of the Calabrian territory, mountainous for 90%, ended up by clearly separating the peripheral areas from the respective capital. In favor of the establishment of the two new provinces, historical commonalities, popular traditions and socio-economic specificities also played out.
Crotone. As the provincial capital Crotone has accentuated its functions as a commercial center and industrial port, becoming a real productive island in the rural context of the Ionian side of Calabria. The major industrial plants belong to the ENI group and have been showing symptoms of crisis for some time. Alongside these activities (chemistry and electrometallurgy), small and medium-sized enterprises have sprung up, while the production service sector is struggling to take off. Among the other centers of the new province there are Cirò Marina, Cutro, Isola di Capo Rizzuto, whose demographic importance is constantly increasing.
Vibo Valentia. The province of Vibo Valentia is located within the Vibonese plateau and borders the Tyrrhenian sea to the west. Of the whole regional area, the Vibonese district is the relatively best equipped area, as investments in the tourism (Tropea, Pizzo, Briatico, Nicotera Marina) and agricultural (polycultural systems) sectors have converged. Vibo Valentia and the port of nearby Vibo Marina constitute an industrial nucleus which, together with that of Crotone, ranks among the main ones in Calabria. There are food and chemical companies and a metallurgical plant within the nucleus. Tourism remains the major economic resource of the new province, especially for the centers located along the coastal selvedge.
