Quartiere
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A quartiere (plural: quartieri) is a subdivision of certain Italian towns. The word is from quarto, or fourth, and was thus properly used only for towns divided into four neighborhoods. The English word "quarter" to mean a neighborhood (e.g. the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana) is derived from the cognate old French word "quartier".
Other Italian towns with other than four official neighborhoods are frequently divided into analogous terzieri (3) or sestieri (6); some towns merely refer to these neighborhoods by the non-number-specific rioni. Quartieri, terzieri, sestieri, rioni, and their analogues are usually no longer administrative divisions of these towns, but historical and traditional communities, most often seen in their sharpest relief in the town's annual palio.
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