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The creation of metropolitan cities was first planned in 1990, but this only really started to happen after the Del Rio Act of 2014. The reform concerns nine major conurbations outside Rome. It is part of the wider reform of the state being undertaken by the Renzi government and is a response to the limited success of the regions. Like an upside?down pyramid, metropolitan cities are underpinned by municipalities. Their governance entails various forms of democracy and they derive their dynamism from the local level. Metropolitan cities replace provinces within the same territorial boundaries. Metropolitan mayors automatically become the mayor of the main municipality in the province.