Choropleth maps are a modern tool to visualize the spatial distribution of social and economic indicators. In this paper, we used these maps with Moran index and local Moran index to study the spatial dependency and local peculiarities of the distribution of human capital and cultural capital in Italy. We considered data from 103 Italian provinces, selecting two time points (1997 and 2007) to evaluate cultural capital, and one time point (2007) to assess economic performance and human capital. We defined human capital in terms of school effectiveness and dropout levels in each province. Maps highlighted a very heterogeneous pattern of autocorrelation for dropout (especially across Southern provinces) even between neighboring areas, in spite of a more compact clustering when considering cultural and economic indicators. We set forward two hypotheses to account for such heterogeneity, which could be referred to (i) the presence of different civic traditions and historical backgrounds in the Italian provinces, and (ii) the quality and quantity of preschool education. We interpreted our results in the light of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological perspective and Heckman’s theory on cognitive and non-cognitive skills.