Retail As An Instrument For The Revitalization Of City Center: Considerations From Two Italian Medium-Sized Cities

The paper analyzes the retail as an instrument for the revitalization of city centers. After a short introduction on the relationship between retail activities and medium-sized cities, the attention is focussed on two cases of medium-sized cities in Campania: Caserta and Benevento. After having framed the role that the two cities take on the regional and metropolitan scale, the paper analyzes the relationship between retail activities and urban fabric at the scale of the historic centers in the two selected cities, investigating the role played by the experiments of town center management and of "centro commerciale naturale". Finally, an analysis on more recent urban operations and on more significant commercial changes is offered in order to see if retail is really a factor of urban regeneration in the two cities.