MILAN — Catalonia has been racked by sound and fury over a drive to secede from Spain, but on a recent morning in Lombardy, which will vote on Sunday on whether to demand greater autonomy from Italy, the mood was distinctly more laid back.

Men and women who looked as though they had just stepped out of a fashion store display perused stylish goods. Tourists snapped selfies in front of the richly sculpted facade of the Duomo, the colossal cathedral of Milan, the capital of Lombardy. Members of the sharp-suited Milanese business class gobbled down panini in the countless new eateries that have sprung up in the city center.

If it weren’t for the occasional taxicab door displaying a reminder for citizens to cast their ballots this month, or the odd billboard here or there, a casual visitor might not even know a vote was about to take place.

The one-question query that will be put to voters in this prosperous northern region of Italy on Sunday is whether they want their representatives to negotiate with the central government in Rome on “particular conditions of autonomy,” and on getting greater return on their taxes. Veneto, the northeast region that includes Venice, is voting in a similar poll the same day.