Made up of both material and symbolic elements, the urban space is always dynamic and transitional; it brings together or separates the past and the present, the public and the private, the center and the periphery. The present volume focuses on the interaction between the social processes and spatial forms that shape the identity of Italian cities. Using both canonical and less well-known texts along with cultural artifacts, the essays in the volume deprovincialize the Italian city, interpreting the material and symbolic practices that have made it into a unique entity whose enduring influence extends far outside Italy.

Andrea Scapolo, is an Associate Professor of Italian at Kennesaw State University. His research focuses on drama-based pedagogy, the theater of Dario Fo and Franca Rame and the reception of Gramsci in post-war Italy.Angela Porcarelli, is a Associate Teaching Professor in Italian at Emory University. Her research focuses on Medieval and Renaissance literature, theories and literary expressions of comedy, Modern Italian literature and Italian cinema.

''This collection includes a broad range of perspectives, methidologies, and academic traditions, offering a nuanced exploration of how spaces - whether physical, sensory, or conceptual - have been conceived and understood throughout history. The focus is on how sucj representations appear in written, visual, or material sources, from intimate or interior spaces to broader landscapes.''
- Letizia Modena, Italian Culture, 2025

Preface
Introduction
Table of Contents
I The City as a Performative Space in Early Modern Italy
1. Weintritt: Marketplace Encounters: Social Mixing on the Streets of Early Modern Florence
2. Averett: ‘Noble Edifices’: Performative Urbanism in Early-Modern Rome
3. Gemmani: Perspective Cities: Staging Transferable Spaces in the Learned Comedy
4. Cecchini: The lure of shopping. The Mercerie in early modern Venice and the city as a permanent mall
5. Hafer: Ancient Magnificence and Modern Design: Roman Architecture and Identity in the Printed Works of Alessandro Specchi (1666–1729) and Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778)
II The City in Times of Crisis: Urban Spaces in Modern Italy
6. VanWagenen: Le piazze d’Italia: de Chirico’s Prophetic Vision of Public Space in Destination Italy
7. Garvin: Colonie Architecture and Fascism’s Cult of Youth
8. Gillen: Fare la vita grigia: The Industrial City of Italo Calvino and Luciano Bianciardi
III The City as a Space of Conflict: Landscapes of Late Capitalism
9. Tholl: Il mondo è meglio non vederlo che vederlo: Naples as Urban Dystopia in Un paio di occhiali
10. Cannamela and Castaldo: Narratives of a ‘City Under Siege’: Bodies and Discourses of the 1977 Movement in Bologna
11. Patat: Terzani’s cityscapes of Asia: In Asia (1965–1997)
Index .