Frazione
territorial subdivision of a comune in Italy
In Italian, frazione (plural frazioni) is the name for a village or hamlet, which is part of a bigger commune. Very often, frazioni have some infrastructure, such as a school, a post office, or a church. Many frazioni used to be independent communes in the past, but over time, several have merged to bigger ones. The name is also used in the Swiss canton Ticino, which is Italian-speaking. In San Marino frazioni are called curazie.
