This chapter examines the transformation of urban policies in Italy since the end of the Second World War. By urban policies, it refers to the construction of the city as a political actor and to the identification of the city as a particular object for policies. It shows that a long-term trend seeking to strengthen both urban political authorities and the relevance of the urban question as a specific policy problem has been punctuated by turnarounds and failures. Urban policies have experienced, and still experience, problems of coordination, effectiveness, resources and legitimacy. Italian cities often change without and beyond public policies. This unsolved urban question in Italy has to be understood considering the ongoing confrontation between the functioning of a state with a centralizing original structure but limited effectiveness and pressures to invent responses to both democratic challenges and urban problems.