Giancarlo Pola

The paper stresses the financial aspects of building and organizing, in Italy, a Metropolitan City, typically represented by Milan. It starts by recalling the theoretical insights dealt with in a contribution written over thirty years ago by Giancarlo Mazzocchi, when the implementation of the «dream» appeared feasible starting from the Milan Intercommunal Plan (PIM). It goes on adding excerpts of the Author’s own contribution to the theme dating back to early nineties, when the Citta` Metropolitana was added to the existing sets of Italy’s decentralized levels of governments by the innovative Act 142/90. It then raises the problem of how large the financial needs for investments in infrastructures of a new «Milano-City» (embracing the whole province) would be and how they would be met. Lastly, it envisages a future setting around not only an economic, but also a social optimum.