This chapter introduces the main purpose of the book and describes the key themes around which its three parts revolve. The questions that guide this research include: (a) How is cohousing developing in Italy? (b) What are the reasons that lead people to choose and maintain this housing model despite difficulties encountered along the way? (c) What are the defining characteristics of Italian cohousing and how are these traits manifested in this specific housing model? (d) What role does the public sector play in relation to cohousing? The research adopts a purely qualitative methodological approach, with the core of the book—Chaps. 5 and 6 —based on qualitative and biographical material collected and organized with people living in various cohousing communities in Italy. The text also explores the characteristics of Italian cohousing and public cohousing experiences that have recently sprung up. Finally, the chapter provides an overview of the key themes that arise throughout the book: (a) the housing problem, with respect to the pressures of the housing demand; (b) the paradigm shift within Italian housing welfare that acknowledges that housing needs can no longer be addressed solely through the Edilizia Residenziale Pubblica (ERP) [Public Housing] but also—and increasingly—through Edilizia Residenziale Sociale (ERS) [Social Housing]; and (c) the (re)appropriation, (re)centralization, and (re)planning of forms of supportive housing in Italian cities—dynamics that can influence and have an impact on housing model choices.