In Italy, the comune (plural comuni) is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.

The comune provides many of the basic civil functions: registry of births and deaths, registry of deeds, contracting for local roads and public works, etc.

It is headed by a mayor (sindaco) assisted by a legislative body, the Consiglio Comunale, and an executive body, the Giunta Comunale. Mayor and members of Consiglio Comunale are elected together by resident citizens: the coalition of the elected Mayor (who needs an absolute majority in the first or second round of voting) gains the three fifths of the Council's seats. The Giunta Comunale is chaired by mayor who appoint others members, called assessori. The offices of the comune are housed in a building usually called the Municipio, or Palazzo Comunale. Since the start of 2009 there have been 8,100 comuni in Italy; they vary considerably in area and population.

For example, the comune of Rome (Lazio) has an area of 1,307.71 km² and a population of 2,761,477, and is both the largest and the most populated comune in Italy; Fiera di Primiero, in the province of Trentino, is the smallest comune by area, with only 0.15 km², and Pedesina (province of Sondrio) is the smallest by population, with only 34 inhabitants. The smallest non-alpine comune in Italy is Montelapiano (CH), the fourth is Carapelle Calvisio (AQ), both in the mountainous region of Abruzzo.