**1. Introduction and Research Method**

Historic centres are the identity and heritage of Italian cities and have for decades been at the centre of cultural debate and administrative action, leading to extensive regulation activities and planning documents to conserve and restore them [1–9]. However, the interpretation of demographic movements and dynamics of uses over the past 30 years suggest that the effects of the planning policies and regulations on the settlement choices should be questioned because the internationally recognized heritage of the centres, one of the most valuable assets in urban Italy, is underutilized and therefore, devitalized and wasted. The issue of the underutilisation of the historic centres has not been studied in detail considering the long time span yet, even though the survey of the Associazione Nazionale Centri Storici Artistici has greatly contributed [10], its relation with plans and regulations have not been analysed; some literature deals with the problem of the regeneration of the historic centres [11–14], but none deals specifically with the reaction of planning instruments to underutilisation and little public discussion debates it. The research presented tries to fill this void and is the second phase of an on-going investigation.

The first phase of the research analyzed the Census data of 1991–2011 of demographic movements and property dynamics of 14 small-to-medium-sized cities in Northern Italy [15,16]. The findings show severe underutilisation in the city centres and urge to question the effectiveness of the planning approach and regulations. The research method of the second phase involved the following steps:


The structure of the paper is as follows: The second paragraph presents the results of the quantitative research about the underutilisation of the building stocks in the historic centres of small-to-medium-sized cities in Northern Italy between 1991 and 2011; the third paragraph presents the results of the qualitative research regarding the planning instruments, which define the future development of the city. The fourth paragraph introduces some paradoxes of the historic city centres, that is to say, the essential characters which should determine the value of the historic core, but fail to do so; these paradoxes should be the starting point for the re-framing of the cultural approach and the policies for the urban heritage, which is proposed in the last paragraph.

Cases of gradual decline over the last 20 years of the historic city centres in small-to-medium-sized cities can be found in the whole of Europe: Shrinkage in population, underutilized stock and diminished importance as places of exchange and congregation are widespread phenomena [20–24]. This paper wants to contribute to the academic and professional debate about this decline presenting the North Italian case, which is relevant because of the great value of its urban heritage, the extensive protection measures applied since the 1960s and it is a place where even centres enlisted in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage are underutilized.
