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Natural Earth 1:10m · 20 regional capitals
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Italian Regional Capitals Quiz

Twenty regional capitals on a flat map of Italy, from Aosta in the Alps to Palermo. Each card names a city — click the region it governs or drag the card onto it. Rome and Naples come easy; Campobasso and Potenza do not. Three tries per card; one flag, one hint and one skip are free for the round.

Read the capital on the card, then click its region or drag the card onto it. Flag turns the card into that region's flag, Hint opens all three facts about it; after three misses, or Skip, the map places it for you. Scroll or pinch to zoom in.

All 20 capitals and their regions, the flags explained, more maps ↓

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Italian Regional Capitals Quiz

The capitals of Italy's twenty regions on a flat map: read the city on each card and click its region. Three tries each.

Three of these cities have been the capital of Italy

Turin, the capital of Piedmont, was the first capital of the united kingdom in 1861; the government moved to Florence in 1865 and to Rome in 1871, the year after Italian troops took the city from the Pope. All three are on this map, and Rome is capital of Lazio as well as of the republic. Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo and Genoa are the five most populous cities in Italy after Rome, and with Bologna, Florence, Bari and Cagliari they are the biggest cities of their regions and the easy cards.

Catanzaro, L'Aquila, Potenza and the other small capitals

The hard cards are the capitals that are not the largest city. Reggio Calabria outnumbers Catanzaro, but Catanzaro was made the seat of Calabria in 1970; the riots that followed in Reggio ended in a compromise that gave Reggio the regional council and left the government in Catanzaro. Pescara has almost twice the population of L'Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo, which was badly damaged by the earthquake of 2009. Campobasso is the capital of Molise, the youngest region, separated from Abruzzo in 1963. Potenza, capital of Basilicata, stands at about 820 metres and is the highest regional capital; Aosta, with just over thirty thousand people, is the smallest. Trento is the capital of Trentino-South Tyrol, but the region is really two autonomous provinces, and Bolzano runs the German-speaking one; the regional council holds its sessions in the two cities in turn. Trieste, the capital of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, returned to Italy only in 1954 after seven years in the Free Territory of Trieste, and Udine is the historical capital of Friuli.

Palaces where the regions sit

Palermo's regional assembly meets in the Palazzo dei Normanni, the palace of the Norman kings of Sicily. The Veneto council sits in Palazzo Ferro Fini on the Grand Canal in Venice. Lombardy's government works from Palazzo Lombardia in Milan, a tower of 161 metres finished in 2010, and Piedmont's council from Palazzo Lascaris in Turin. Ancona and Perugia, the capitals of Marche and Umbria, are also the largest cities of their regions, as are Genoa, Bologna, Bari and Cagliari; Naples, capital of Campania, is the largest city in the south.

All 20 capitals and their regions

20 capitals are in the deck, listed in alphabetical order by city, each with its region. Every region on the map is in the deck.

  1. AnconaMarche
  2. AostaAosta Valley
  3. BariApulia
  4. BolognaEmilia-Romagna
  5. CagliariSardinia
  6. CampobassoMolise
  7. CatanzaroCalabria
  8. FlorenceTuscany
  9. GenoaLiguria
  10. L'AquilaAbruzzo
  11. MilanLombardy
  12. NaplesCampania
  13. PalermoSicily
  14. PerugiaUmbria
  15. PotenzaBasilicata
  16. RomeLazio
  17. TrentoTrentino-South Tyrol
  18. TriesteFriuli-Venezia Giulia
  19. TurinPiedmont
  20. VeniceVeneto

Questions about the capitals

Why is Catanzaro the capital of Calabria and not Reggio Calabria?

When the ordinary regions were set up in 1970, Catanzaro, the smaller but more central city, was chosen as the capital. Reggio Calabria, the largest city, rose in months of riots, the Moti di Reggio of 1970 and 1971. The settlement gave Reggio the seat of the regional council while the president and the government stayed in Catanzaro, an arrangement that still holds.

Which Italian regional capital is the highest, and which the smallest?

Potenza, capital of Basilicata, is the highest at about 820 metres above sea level, and Aosta, with just over thirty thousand inhabitants, is the smallest. Rome is the largest, followed by Milan, Naples, Turin and Palermo, which are also the five largest cities in Italy. Campobasso, L'Aquila and Catanzaro are the other capitals with well under a hundred thousand people.

Is Bolzano a regional capital?

No. Bolzano is the capital of the autonomous province of South Tyrol, and Trento of the province of Trentino; together the two provinces form the region of Trentino-South Tyrol, whose capital is Trento. Most power lies with the provinces, and the regional council holds its sessions in Trento and Bolzano in turn, but the card for the region reads Trento.

More maps

Flags of the same map: Italian regions. Other maps: US state capitals, European capitals, Asian capitals, Capitals of the Americas, African capitals, French regional capitals, Spanish regional capitals, Brazilian state capitals, German state capitals, Canadian provincial capitals. All 235 flags of the world with their capitals: Flags of the world · all modes.