Are milan and barcelona really big metropolis or just cities? (people, nationality)

[Simpsin]

Milan and barcelona are big european metropolis as rome,paris,london,madrid and berlin or are more cities like munich,frankfurt etc for you?Cause in italy for example i heard someone sayong milan is not a real metropolis.What are the parameters of a real european metropolis?And is this connected with the internationality?

[morga]

They both have considerable populated surrounding areas around it that elevate their populations to several millions of people.

Barcelona however is way better than Milan which is in turn rather sleepy for a city that size.

There is no European concept of metropolis. There is usually a dense city with surrounding towns which form the greater urban area but that is it.