Eight centuries of Prince-Bishop rulers, relative independence from the rest of Europe, the Austrian domination and a strong sense of communal fate left a distinctive mark on the city's culture, which is dominated by a fairly progressive Social-Catholic political orientation (in fact, Trento is one of the few cities in Italy where left-leaning Catholics form the majority party). The city is considered to be well-administered and enjoys the benefits of special autonomy from the central Italian government. Trento ranks high in Italian quality-of-life statistics.
The city owes much of its unique history to its position along the main communication route between Italy and Northern Europe and to the Adige river which prior to its diversion in the mid-19th century ran through the center of the city. The Adige river was formerly a navigable river and one of the main commercial routes in the Alps. The original course of the river is now covered by the Via Torre Vanga, Via Torre Verde and the Via Alessandro Manzoni.
As late as the Second World War, Trento depended on wine-making and silk. The manufacturing industry installed in the post-war period has been mostly dismantled. Today Trento thrives on commerce, services, tourism, high-quality agriculture and food industry (including wine, fruit), as a research and conference center thanks to a small but renowned university and internationally renowned research centers such as Fondazione Bruno Kessler, active in both fundamental and applied research, the Italian-German Historical Institute, the Centre for Computational and Systems Biology and ECT*, active in theoretical nuclear studies and part of FBK, and as logistics and transportation thoroughfare.
Valued pink and white porphyry is still excavated from some surrounding areas (Pila). This stone can be seen in many of Trento's buildings, both new and old.
The city has two long-running annual sporting events: the Giro al Sas (a 10 km professional
