Genoa among the leading cities of digital innovation

The fourteenth edition of ICIty Rank, the annual research on the digital transformation of the 108 municipalities carried out by FPA and presented on December 4 2025, during the FORUM PA Città 2025, the event dedicated to urban innovation, has concluded. 

There are 16 capital cities that are leaders in digital innovation in Italy: Bergamo, Bologma, Brescia, Cagliari, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Modena, Parma, Prato, Rimini, Rome Capital, Siena, Turin, Trento and Venice. Below we find another 30 highly digitized municipalities and then 46 intermediate - level.

The evaluation of the Municipalities is based on three indexes composed of 34 indicators, built on approximately 200 variables.

The index "Digital Administrations" measures the degree of digilization of administrative activity, considering the quality of website, access to online services and the adoption of major national platform. In this category, Genoa and Pistoia are tied for first place, just above Bologna and Florence. Today, most Italian capital cities have technologies to put services online and connect to platform, but now the challenge is to integrate these elements with administrative practices to make services more complete and usable. 

The "Open Municipalities" index notes the use of social media, the dissemination of open data and the presence of dedicated apps. In this index, Florence reaches the first place, surpassing Rome Capital and Bologna. Below are Milan, Genoa in fifth place, Modena, Rimini, Turin, Bergamo and Venice. 
In this dimension, there is a weak improvement and even if the capitals of Southern Italy are growing more than average, they still remain at an average lower level. 

In the end, the "Connected CIties" index evaluates the digital transformation of urban services, analyzes the development of connection networks and sensor systems. The ranking of this index is led by Bologna, Florence, Milan and Venice, followed by Cagliari, Rome Capital and Turin. Genoa and Modena are in eight place followeb by Brescia and Trento in tenth. 
Growth in this case was homogeneous with geographical differences still relevant: the average score in the North is around 70 while in Southern Italy it is 54. 

What is evident is an increase in the average innovation scores of Italian cities driven by progress in the digitalization of public administration thanks to the PNRR. At the same time, the gaps between large and small centres and between North and South are reduced. 

Edited by Alessia Marciano