I’m aware of places with separatist, independent movements like the Basque Country and Catalonia. I don’t mean this though, I mean places that people might not necessarily know about that don’t actually have a movement like that and wouldn’t ever become independent.
Here in England, Liverpool has a fairly strong feeling of disconnect from England. There’s a saying of “scouse not English” (scousers are people from Liverpool)
I’m also aware of a feeling like this in Naples, I believe “Neapolitan not Italian” or “Naples is not Italy” are also pretty common phrases used by people in Naples and Italy.
I’m just wondering if there’s anything similar in other countries
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If we are talking about places that feel somewhat different from the rest of the country, where the people consider themselves more of a local citizen than a national one.. there are a lot in Italy!
More specifically.. places that really feel different to the rest of the country for me tend to be those in the border areas, particularly those that were once “in other countries”… Bolzano say,or Trieste.
Napoli sees itself as different from Northern Italy I’d say.Not so much from the south.Indeed my city (Palermo) has a lot of similarities to Naples, and Napolitani that come here often feel quite at home (as we do there).
We have “Moscow is not Russia”, because Moscow is far more developed in terms of infrastructure and standards of living than the rest of the country.
Related, we also have a joke about Muscovites (those living in Moscow) not knowing about cities in “Zamkadie” (some doomed place, which is basically everything outside of the Moscow circular (around) road)
>Here in England, Liverpool has a fairly strong feeling of disconnect from England. There’s a saying of “scouse not English” (scousers are people from Liverpool)
My favourite example of this is how they had an Irish nationalist MP at one time!
The town of [Bogatynia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogatynia) in Poland is a weird place, it’s located in a panhandle between Czechia and Germany and it’s famous for its fachwerk architecture. It looks and feels very different to the entire country.
I felt very weird in Lendava. It is our most remote city/town next to the broder with Hungary, it is officially bilingual and I believe the majority of the population speak Hungarian (maybe not in the town itself, but certainly in the surrounding villages).
The vibe there is certainly not what I’m used to as ‘Slovenian’, and they have a big-ass Culture Centre which [screams Hungary](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/culture-center-lendava-eastern-slovenia-theater-concert-hall-culture-center-lendava-slovenia-113252974.jpg) and was totally bizarre for me.
Not necessarily cities, but entire regions.
Here in the Netherlands people in the eastern provinces often feel like the national government only cares about the area around the four big cities (de Randstad) and to a lesser degree the province of Noord-Brabant and some big cities elsewhere like Arnhem and Nijmegen.
There’s a big disparity between investments in infrastructure and the regions in the east are also often underrepresented in parliament. If you look at the voting ballot during national elections you’ll notice that most big parties, especially the more left-leaning ones, do not include any candidates from the eastern provinces, aside from some of the big cities there.
It’s maybe just my personal impression, but let share it with you anyway. Czechia looks basically like basin from geographical perspetive. To reach border in almost every direction you need to ascent from the central lowlands in to the mountains and when you get to the mountain ridge – there’s a border and another country usually begins. However, there are few regions that still are part of Czechia, despite they are laying behind the bordering mountains. Local people usually cross the border on daily basis either for shopping or work, which makes these places sociaticaly fluid somehow. These regions are usually heavily suffering from the remoteness from czech local centres (i.e. institutions, schools) and weak transportation options.
Using this perspective the most remote region is town of Javorník and surrounding (borbering with Poland), which actually lays behind two mountain passes.
I think German identities are a lot like Italian ones – there’s often more regionalism/local and civic patriotism than nationalism. And of course this is multiplied in Germany by the “never-again effect”. On the other hand even the Bavarians are mostly tongue-in-cheek when they say they’re not really German. The difference to the case of Liverpool (and, for example, Scotland in the UK) is that “Germanness” is usually seen as such a “patchwork” thing rather than there being a dominant identity in the way that London and the South East of England have a tendency to project a unified English/UK identity that can feel like it is excluding “the provinces”.
Interestingly enough, there is a kind of alternative tradition of Englishness that is more like the German/Italian patchwork of regions model and sort of opposed to the British state and the London hegemony.
I think your example is not the best, as in Spain almost every autonomous community will feel quite different from the rest but at the will feel spanish.
The city I’ve been to that feels more their own thing is Toledo.
We are a bit small for that as nation of 1 million people. Sure, there are noticeable regional differences in culture, landscape, dialect and even genetic makeup of the population, but they all consider themselves Estonian, too.
Two regions that do have a strong regional identity alongside the national identity are the islands ([Saaremaa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saaremaa), [Hiiumaa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiiumaa), [Muhu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhu), [Vormsi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vormsi), [Kihnu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kihnu), [Ruhnu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhnu) etc) and the South-East ([Seto](https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setumaa)).
In Croatia, once you cross the mountain of Učka and enter Istria, it feels like ou are in a whole other country.
The people, nature, the infrastructure, the layout of cities feels unlike anything else in Croatia. You literally have a sense that you stepped about 20 years into the future.
>“Neapolitan not Italian” or “Naples is not Italy” are also pretty common phrases used by people in Naples and Italy.
While we recognize our differences and neapolitans have a strong cultural identity this phrases are used more by the northners in a bad way, like “naples (or the south) is not italy, it’s africa”
I think that the place you’re looking for is sardinia, they have a really strong regional identity and may say often that the island is not italy
German people often have a stronger connection to their region than to Germany itself of course this also has to do with our history
But its mostly friendly bashing and not any real movement to become independent like in the netherlands
Although Bavaria has a a party with that goal but they don’t get Alot of votes
Budapest imo. There are “pestiek” (people from Budapest) and “vidékiek” (people from the rest of the country). The stereotypes go something like this:
Pestiek are liberals, educated snobs, far from nature, unfriendly, etc.
Vidékiek are conservatives, uneducated fools, close with nature, talkative, etc.
There might not be that much of a disconnect, but it feels that way to me sometimes.
Malta is made up of two main islands, Malta and Gozo. Gozo is the smaller of the two and seen to be more “stuck in time”. Many people go “U dak minn Għawdex” (He’s from Gozo) as if its another country. There is a noticeable dialect change as well, even in a country smaller than a city.
Disagree with your example of Liverpool. The city that is most disconnected from England is clearly London. It’s so different from the rest of the country, and gets all the attention both internally and externally. Visiting Liverpool from Yorkshire, Liverpool isn’t really so different.
Budapest, the capital. similar to Russia, it’s outstanding in development compared to the rest of the country.
in bigger countries you have quite a few cities where you could generalise the city culture and separate it from the countryside’s. well, Hungary has only one city, the capital. everything outside of the M0 ring-way is countryside: underdeveloped, poor and misguided by an exploitative government.
Local identities are relatively strong in Germany and there is a lot of variance in culture and demeanor. The big cities sometimes feel like ancient city states (and three of them actually are city states) and the very rural areas are their own thing entirely, often much more conservative than their urban counterparts. Regional differences in religion, culture, politics and economy are also very pronounced for historical reasons.
Munich, Hamburg, Cologne and the Ruhrgebiet probably have the strongest local identities out of all the big cities, but Berlin is on its own plane of existence.
Yes, Bergen. “He’s not norwegian, he’s from Bergen.” That’s how a teacher introduced a new pupil at my school. Bergen people have a strong local identify and pride and some customs that set them a bit apart.