The 33rd edition of the Italian newspaper il Sole 24 Ore's Quality of Life survey crowns Bologna. For the fifth time, the capital of Emilia-Romagna takes the victory, but Bolzano and Florence are also on the podium. Bologna had also won in 2000, 2004, 2011 and 2020. Florence climbs eight positions from last year, while Milan is in eighth place.

Rome and Turin, on the other hand, worsen their performance. The capital loses 18 positions, and among its critical issues are civil cases registered with the court. The Piedmontese capital ranks 40th, Palermo 88th and Naples 98th. Penalized by poor air quality and the incidence of reported crimes. Among which the real scourge is street crime.

To recap, then, the ten Italian cities where Quality of Life is better according to the Sole 24 Ore ranking are: Bologna, Bolzano, Florence, Siena, Trento, Aosta, Trieste, Milan, Parma and Pisa. These are followed by Cremona, Udine, Reggio Emilia, Bergamo, Sondrio, Verona, Modena, Cagliari, Gorizia and Venice; the worst ten for quality of life, however, are Crotone, Isernia, Caltanissetta, Foggia, Vibo Valentia, Reggio Calabria, Taranto, Enna, Caserta, and Naples. Followed by: Salerno, Catanzaro, Cosenza, Potenza, Trapani, Brindisi, Catania, Syracuse, Messina, and Palermo.

The newspaper explains that the performance of metropolitan cities is deteriorating. Criticism of large cities is particularly concerned with high rents and the welfare of younger generations. While the positions from 81st to 107th are all occupied by southern provinces. Calabrian cities are all found from 95th position onwards. The first ones encountered outside the South are Latina (80th) and Frosinone (79th). Rovigo, the first northern province, is 77th.

On the indicator domains the podium sees Belluno, Bologna and Bolzano at the top for Wealth and Consumption. For Business and Labor Milan, Trieste and Rome. For Demographics, Health and Society Bologna, Modena and Rome. For Environment and Services Pisa, Siena and Aosta. For Justice and Security Oristano, Pordenone and Sondrio. For Culture and Leisure Florence, Trieste and Gorizia.

Also according to the ranking to offer greater well-being to women is the province of Monza and Brianza, followed by Treviso (winner of the first edition, in 2021) and Cagliari. And this is because the province has the lowest gender employment gap in Italy (at 7.1 percent against a national average of 19.4 percent), one of the highest female employment rates in the country (69 percent) and the record number of days paid to female employees (75.3 percent of the theoretical maximum).