In most recent history, the strongest separatist movement has been so-called "Padania" which encompasses most of Northern Italy (Lombardia, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Piemonte, Liguria, FVG, Trentino-Südtirol, Valle d'Aosta). This is a decidedly right-wing separatism however.

It's how the far-right Lega, Matteo Salvini's party, got its start. The former version was La Lega Nord (Northern League). Fortunately, the separatist forces have weakened, hence the rebrand by even Salvini.

However, at various times in history since the risorgimento (Italian unification in the 19th century), different groups have been the most viscerally separatist. Back then, for example, the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies arguably had the most resentments.

And for a long time in the early-to-mid-20th century the strongest separatism was from Südtirol (Alto Adige in Italian), part of Austria Italy carved off after WWI which remains German-speaking, and where I have part of my family from. To the point of (low-grade) terrorism in e.g. the 1950s.

Not an expert, but when I visited Northern Italy, I would see these stickers added to map kiosks. There is also a South Tyrolean independence movement: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_T...

I mention this elsewhere in the thread :) Indeed, there are constant kerfuffles/back-and-forths about place names. The current far-right government, with Meloni as PM, has tried to do some minor Italianizing lately by insisting that places in Südtirol have *bilingual*...

...(as opposed to just German) signs, and it's started the whole thing back up again. But these days even with flareups like this the movement is miniscule, because Trentino-Aldo Adige/Südtirol is has a great fucking deal being part of Italy.

has* not is has

Basically, it's an autonomous region with a lot of self-government and that sets its own tax policy, not paying most standard taxes to the national government.

This, combined with its central location in Europe and ties to the DACH specialized industry and financial worlds, mean it's one of the wealthiest national subdivisions in Europe. (Also fun fact, my glasses are from there)