The Republic of Italy, as shown on the map, is divided into 20 regions (Regioni) which are further divided into 103 provinces (Province). Within the Province themselves one may find many Municipalities (Comuni).
Every region has a statute that serves as a regional constitution, determining the form of government and the fundamental principles of the organization and the functioning of the region, as prescribed by the Constitution of Italy. Fifteen regions have ordinary statutes and five have special statutes.
These regions, whose statutes are approved by their regional councils, were created in the 1970s, even though the Italian Constitution dates back to 1947. Since the constitutional reform of 2001 they have had legislative as well as administrative powers. The regions have exclusive legislative power with respect to any matters not expressly reserved to state law. Yet their financial autonomy is quite modest: they just keep 20% of all levied taxes.
Each region has an elected parliament, called Consiglio Regionale (literally regional council) and a regional government, called Giunta Regionale (literally executive committee) headed by the regional president, who is elected directly by the citizens living in the region. Indeed the president is very powerful: he can nominate the members of his government and decide over their destitution; if he resigns, new elections are to be immediately called.

Autonomous regions with special statute

The Italian constitution grants to five regions (namely Sardinia, Sicily, Trentino, Aosta and Friuli) home rule, acknowledging their powers in relation to legislation, administration and economy. They keep between 60%  and 100%  of all levied taxes. In return they have to finance the health-care system, the school system and most public infrastructures by themselves (except for Sicily and Sardinia).

These regions became autonomous in order to take into account linguistic and cultural differences, such as the linguistic minorities in Trentino, Aosta, and Friuli), or geographically isolation in the case of the two greater islands, Sicily and Sardinia.

Trentino constitutes a special case. The region itself is nearly powerless and the powers granted by the region's statute are mostly exercised by the two autonomous provinces within the region, Trento and Bolzano-Bozen. In this case, the regional institution plays a merely coordinating role.