Given its unpredictable nature, metropolitan growth in the old continent is considered an intriguing and intricate economic issue at the same time. UrbanizationUrbanization—both compact and dispersed—and suburbanizationSuburbanization sequences have occurred in distinctive ways across cities and regions, highlighting peculiar relationships between landLand use, social dynamics, economic structures, and functions. Settlement dispersion advanced rapidly in Southern Europe—irrespective of city's size and shape—with building rates rising faster than total populationPopulation. Despite sharing some transformative forces (populationPopulation dynamics, sociospatial structures, and planningPlanning deregulation), urban expansion and metropolitan development have adapted to increasingly volatile economic, cultural, sociodemographic, and environmental contexts. Understanding how place-specific factors influence patterns and processes of metropolitan expansion in MediterraneanMediterranean contexts may inform policies promoting settlement containment, landLand-use management, and sustainable developmentSustainable development of contemporary cities.