Lombardy is a region in northwestern Italy. Lombardy is the most populous region of Italy: it has about ten million inhabitants. Its capital is Milan. The region borders Switzerland (Canton Ticino and Grisons) to the north, Piedmont to the west, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige to the east, and Emilia-Romagna to the south.
The Lombard Alpine arc crowns the Region to the north; its
mountainous territories are characterized by deep and long valleys
(Brembana, Seriana, Val Camonica, Valtellina). Great mountain massifs,
such as the Spluga, the Bernina, the Stelvio, the Adamello mark the
northern border of the Region with grandeur, and with an incredible
wealth of vast breathtaking panoramas. The Spluga Pass and the Stelvio
Pass are two important communication routes towards Switzerland and
towards Alto Adige and the Germanic world.
Further south,
Lombardy is uniformly flat, between the Po and the foothills and hills
that embrace the Pre-Alps and the great Lombard lakes: Lake Maggiore
(Verbano) which it shares with Piedmont and is formed by Ticino; Lake
Como (Lario) fed by the Adda; Lake Iseo (Sebino) whose tributary is the
Oglio; Lake Idro which is due to Chiese; Lake Garda (Benaco), which it
shares with Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige and is created by the Sarca,
which emerges with the name transformed into Mincio and before throwing
itself into the Po forms the Lakes of Mantua. In the territories located
on the right side of the Po only in the Oltrepò Pavese we find hilly and
mountainous reliefs, in the triangular tongue of land that goes almost
as far as the Ligurian territory, in the Apennine valleys.
Lombardy boasts an immeasurable abundance of water thanks to the large
number of alpine streams, rivers, canals that affect its entire
territory, both in the plains and in the mountains. The result is a
great wealth of alpine lakes nestled among its mountains, and in
addition to the larger ones it still includes a good number of them,
between the foothills and the foothills, but also in the plains: the
lakes of Varese, Monate, Pusiano, Annone, of Mantua, of Lugano which
partly falls within the Lombard territory. Finally, it has a myriad of
artificial lakes: it is no coincidence that Lombardy boasts the highest
Italian hydroelectric production.
Hundreds of rivers and streams pass through the Lombardy region, the
most important of which is the Po which, with its 652 km, is the longest
in Italy. For a long stretch it forms the southern border of the region
and flows entirely in Lombardy only in the provinces of Pavia and
Mantua.
The other main rivers come from the Alpine side of the Po
Valley and are all tributaries of the Po: in fact, the Lombard territory
is almost entirely included in the hydrographic basin of the main
Italian river. Given the limited extension of the regional territory
south of the Po, Lombardy is practically devoid of Apennine rivers: in
the Oltrepò Pavese there are no significant watercourses, while the only
exception is constituted by the Secchia which in the last stretch of its
Corso, before flowing into the Po, flows into the Mantuan Oltrepò.
In addition to the Po, the main rivers are:
The Adda (313 km)
is the longest river that flows entirely in Lombardy. It originates in
Val Alpisella and after crossing the entire Valtellina it enters Lake
Como, emerging from the Lecco branch to flow into the Po near
Castelnuovo Bocca d'Adda (LO).
The Oglio (280 km) which, after
crossing Val Camonica, enters Lake Iseo and exits at Sarnico passing
through Palazzolo sull'Oglio and flowing into the Po at Torre d'Oglio.
The Oglio marks the borders between the provinces of Brescia, Bergamo,
Cremona and Mantua.
The Ticino (248 km), which originates in
Switzerland in the Canton Ticino, is an tributary and an emissary of
Lake Maggiore and divides Lombardy from Piedmont for a stretch before
flowing into the Po just south of Pavia, of which it is the main
tributary by flow of water.
The Mincio (75 km) is the main outlet of
Lake Garda, but it can be considered, with the lake itself and the Sarca
tributary, a single river axis of 203 km (Sarca-Mincio system). Emerging
from the lake, it marks the border between Lombardy and Veneto for a
stretch, then flows in the province of Mantua, skirting the capital city
before entering the Po downstream of Governolo.
The Chiese (160 km),
which originates in Trentino, is an inlet and outlet of Lake Idro and
crosses the eastern part of the province of Brescia, flowing into the
Oglio in the province of Mantua, near Acquanegra sul Chiese.
Other
important rivers are the Lambro (130 km), the Serio (124 km) and the
Brembo (74 km), the Olona (71 km) and the southern Olona (36 km). The
homonymy between the two Olona rivers is not of imitative or
etymological origin, but is due to the fact that originally they were
two sections of the same river, diverted by the ancient Romans in its
upper stretch towards Milan.
The region is dotted with many large and small lakes, the main ones
being:
Lake Garda (or Benaco), of glacial origin, is the largest in
Italy with a surface area of 370 km². It is 346 m deep and 51.6 km long.
The large amount of water in the lake has significant effects on the
local climate. In fact, along its banks, olive trees, lemons and cedars
are grown, typical of the Mediterranean climate.
Lake Maggiore (or
Verbano) has a surface area of 212 km², an extension of 50 km, a width
ranging from 2 to 4.5 km and a maximum depth of 372 m.
Lake Como (or
Lario) is characterized by an inverted Y shape, with the tip of Bellagio
marking the separation into two branches. Completely excavated in the
pre-Alpine circle, the lake winds for 46 km, has a maximum width of 4.3
km and a surface area of 146 km². It is the first in Italy in terms of
perimeter development (180 km) and the fifth in Europe in terms of depth
(410 m).
Lake Iseo (or Sebino) has the shape of an S, with a surface
area of 65.3 km² and a maximum depth of 361 m. There is the largest lake
island in Europe, Monte Isola, which extends for 4.3 km².
Lake Lugano
(or Ceresio), located in Lombardy, but also in Switzerland and has an
area of 48.7 km². On its banks are the Italian municipalities of Porto
Ceresio, Valsolda and Porlezza.
The climate of Lombardy, although it can be defined as a temperate
subcontinental type, is very varied due to the different natural
conformations present in the area: mountains, hills, lakes and plains.
In general, the summer seasons in the plains are muggy (due to the
high humidity) and hot. Continentality means that the average maximum
temperature in July is 29 °C. But in these months of the year strong
thunderstorms and sudden downpours are also frequent, accompanied by
hail, sometimes even very intense storms. Winters are cold and long with
low rainfall. Precipitation is heaviest in the pre-Alpine area, up to
1,500-2,000 mm per year, but is also abundant in the lowlands and in the
alpine areas, with an average of 600-850 mm (23.6-33.5 in) per year.
year. The total annual rainfall averages 827mm. The temperature range
during the year is high and the fog is intense. In the mountains, the
climate is typically alpine with cool summers and abundant rainfall and
long, harsh winters with little rain. The Lombardy Po Valley is one of
the least ventilated areas of Italy. The snow, abundant on the hills,
also falls on the plains, given that the average minimum temperature in
January is -1 °C. Lake Garda helps regulate the temperature of the
surrounding areas, creating a "Mediterranean" microclimate which makes
it possible to grow olives. The pre-Alpine belt and the upper Oltrepò
have a cool temperate climate, the middle Alpine mountains have a cold
temperate climate and the peaks have a glacial climate.
There are practically no historical linguistic minorities.
In
certain isolated mountain localities, towards the border with the
Engadin, Ladin is used, in the Romansh variant. The use of the dialect,
in its various forms (from the Insubre of Varese and its surroundings,
to the Milanese of the capital, to the Bergamo strait of the valleys, up
to Camuno or Mantua) is still frequent outside the cities, in parallel
with Italian. Indeed, there is a certain revival of dialects.
Although tourism in Lombardy does not represent, as in other Italian
regions, one of the primary activities, thanks to the presence of
various natural beauties (lakes and mountains) and cities of art, it
manages to attract a significant number of people every year.
In
Lombardy there were 13,258,859 arrivals and 33,123,562 presences in
2011. Non-residents contributed to 49.72% of arrivals and 55.8% of
presences. Among the most visited places we must remember the Pinacoteca
di Brera (336,981 visitors), the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
(330,071), the Archaeological Museum of Sirmione with the Grotte di
Catullo (216,612), the Scaliger Castle (202,066).
Lombard Alpine
arc — Valchiavenna, Valtellina crossed by the Adda and Val Camonica, one
of the largest, stand out among the Alpine valleys; the main urban
centers are Chiavenna, key for communication with the other side of the
Alps; Sondrio, main administrative centre; important tourist resorts and
ski resorts are Madesimo, Bormio, Livigno, Ponte di Legno, Santa
Caterina Valfurva, Aprica. To see the Stelvio National Park. Among the
less famous centers but with many attractions we find Edolo, Valdisotto,
famous for the Levissima water and Darfo Boario Terme.
Pre-Alps
and large Lombard lakes - The major Lombard lakes with their cities,
towns and interesting villages characterize this territorial band of the
region from a tourist point of view, but the cities of art are equally
interesting for tourists: Bergamo, Brescia, Como; then Lecco and Varese
without forgetting places such as those on Lake Iseo such as Sulzano and
Monte Isola, where a few years ago there was the famous walkway created
by Christo. In these areas there are some mountain resorts such as Lanzo
d'Intelvi, Barzio and Morterone in Valsassina, the municipality with the
fewest inhabitants in Italy. The most famous resorts are certainly the
lakes including Bellagio, Ossuccio, Tremezzo, Cernobbio, and Varenna as
well as the two provincial capitals, Como and Lecco, characterized by
the view and the beaches on the most famous lake in Italy. On Lake
Maggiore, places such as Angera, Laveno and Luino stand out, while on
the Brescia side of Lake Garda, places such as Desenzano del Garda,
Limone sul Garda, Sirmione and Salò are recommended.
Lombard Po
Valley - It is the area of the flat countryside but above all of
urbanization, even wild with the large metropolitan areas and the
conurbations of Milan and its vast hinterland, of Monza and Brianza, of
Saronno, Busto Arsizio, Gallarate, and Legnano , which nonetheless boast
the tourist offer of cities of art (Milan) or of a good standard (all
the others). In the Milan area you can visit the Naviglio Grande, which
starts from Milan and arrives near Somma Lombardo, while the Naviglio di
Bereguardo, which starts from Abbiategrasso and arrives in Bereguardo,
flows into the Ticino river. Looking away from the immense agglomeration
of Milan, which monopolizes the entire eastern area, the cities of
Crema, which was for a long time a Venetian enclave in the Duchy of
Milan, are of significant tourist interest, in a certainly less chaotic
context of life. it boasts a beautiful cathedral, as well as remains of
Venetian walls; Treviglio; Pandino and Soncino, with their turreted
castles; Castel Goffredo and Castiglione delle Stiviere, Gonzaga
capitals; Asola, Gonzaga style but with important Venetian atmospheres
deriving from its past linked to the Serenissima.
Bassa del Po di
Lombardia — The cities of Vigevano, Voghera, Pavia, Lodi, Cremona,
Mantua (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Casalmaggiore, Sabbioneta (UNESCO
World Heritage Site), Viadana, Suzzara and their riches are located
there territories. There are also well-known small towns such as Breme,
Varzi and Brallo di Pregola. In the Pavia area there are localities such
as Lomello, which is the ancient capital of the Longobard county from
which this corner of the region takes its name; Vigevano, the major
centre, is a city of art and industry; Mortara is an important
agricultural market center and is famous for its characteristic goose
salami. The main towns of Oltrepò Mantovano are San Benedetto Po,
Felonica, Pieve di Coriano, Quingentole and Gonzaga. The main cities of
the Cremona area are Crema, Cremona, Soresina famous for its dairy,
Rivolta d'Adda where the famous Prehistory Park is located. Po di
Lombardia is a tourism development project for the territory of the
provincial administrations of Pavia, Lodi, Cremona and Mantua, signed by
the four provinces of Lombardy on 9 February 2004.
Below are the main Lombard towns and then the major spas, in fact
the great wealth of water, combined with the great availability of
fertile flat soil, has made Lombardy a region of consolidated
agricultural activity. In its territory, water is also a precious
means of cure; in fact, there are numerous spa resorts which are
important attractions for thermal health tourism which boasts a
consolidated organization which in the most renowned centers also
dates back to the end of the 19th century.
Milan - "Moral capital", "Economic
capital", "Lombard metropolis", "Città della Madunìna" and so on:
these are all slogans that describe the appearance of Milan, not its
tourist essence, which is that of the most suitable city of a man,
more familiar, than the ancient villages of old Milan who hide their
pearls in the ravines of the rampant modern city, perhaps with
reluctance, perhaps with jealousy, certainly with pride. Intimate
ancient churches, sumptuous palaces, silent medieval corners. And
then, the astonishing explosion of the Duomo with the golden and
adored Madonnina, to show everyone the greatness, dynamism,
ingenuity that brought the most intimate and subdued ancient Milan
to the world stage.
Bergamo - a city of ancient atmospheres, Bergamo Alta from its refuge on a hill overlooks the new modern city which is spreading like wildfire. Modernity hasn't hurt the ancient city, it hasn't offended it; she kept away from it with deferential respect. And this is why it can proudly show the tourist, almost like in a painting, the image of its wonderfully intact ancient heart on the hill where the city was born.
Brescia - vast and modern, the Lioness, the second city of the Region, climbs with some districts on the first hills, and expands more and more into the plain. In its ancient part, however, it retains many traces of Roman Brixia, of the Longobards who made it the capital of a prosperous and vast Duchy as well as of the more than three hundred years of Venetian rule, during which it was a quiet and flourishing city on the Mainland. The museum complexes of Santa Giulia are of great importance.
Como — The city enjoys the beautiful view of
the looming mountains and the opening of the waters of the lake to which
it gives its name. The square overlooking the lake often receives its
waters in times of flood, as if to emulate the more famous Venice. Even
the beautiful patrician villas that alternate along the banks of the
Lario, where the city extends towards the northwest, could almost be
compared to the Venetian villas, even if Como was always in the Milanese
orbit. City of silk, it thrives on a solid and peaceful economy, which
has generated a non-irreverent development towards the monuments of the
past.
Cremona - it has a monumental historic center among the
most famous in Lombardy. It was a Roman city overlooking the river Po
(the longest in Italy). It was powerful at the time of the Communes and
rivaled Milan, which finally subdued it. His violins (Stradivarius and
Amati), his Torrazzo and even more his nougat, are known all over the
world.
Lecco - On Lake Como, Lecco stands on the south-facing branch, to which it gives its name. Its horizon is drawn by the lake and the profile of the Resegone. Leaving behind the peasant world of Manzoni's memory, the city has developed a solid metallurgical activity that has determined its development.
Lodi — Fanfulla da Lodi made its name known, but the ancient Laus Nova, rebuilt by Barbarossa after Laus Pompeia (now Lodi Vecchio, with the Basilica of San Bassiano) had been destroyed during the struggles between the Communes and the Empire, was already in ancient times of solid fame. Its monumental center is remarkable.
Mantua - the acknowledgment seals the prestige and charm of the Gonzaga capital, who made it one of the most refined courts in Renaissance Europe. The ducal palace (actually a cluster of buildings from various eras) is one of the largest royal palaces.
Monza — Royalty has always gone hand in hand with Monza, which was a place of rest from the Ostrogothic kings to the Longobard Theodelinda and the more recent Savoy. The particular attention that many sovereigns have dedicated to it owes the urban royalty of its historic center which includes famous monuments. Industrious and populous, it is the third largest city in the Region in terms of inhabitants. Known more for its racetrack than for its architectural beauties, Monza pays for the cumbersome proximity of Milan which seems to almost want to engulf it by absorbing it into its rampant immense conurbation.
Pavia - The reddish ocher color of the
bricks from which its monuments have admirably taken shape - the castle,
the churches, the covered bridge, the palaces - is the tone that
dominates its beautiful historic centre. It is the same tint from which
the enchanting white of the marbles of the facade of the Certosa di
Pavia, its by far best known art jewel, set in the emerald green of its
countryside, is released.
Sondrio - In the long Valtellina crossed by the Adda
Sondrio seems to belong only to itself and to its own fascinating
mountains, far from the big cities and the noisy and polluting
industrial districts of the plain. Main administrative center of the
Lombard Alps, it still betrays a vague Swiss scent that has left it the
domination of over two and a half centuries by the Swiss Graubünden. .
Varese - It boasts villas and gardens
scattered in the greenery that extends down to the valley from the Sacro
Monte and Monte Tre Croci, and has its own lake to which it gives its
name. It was a destination for elite tourism of the Lombard nobility
since the eighteenth century. Also a destination for religious tourism
at the nearby Sacro Monte, the city is today the center of lively
industrial activity.
Corner Spas — In Val di Scalve, in the Valcamonica area, its spas
have sulphate-bicarbonate-alkaline-earthy waters.
Boario Terme - Its
thermal baths, in the area that gravitates around the Valcamonica, were
already used in the sixteenth century; they had a great sponsor in
Alessandro Manzoni who praised them, thus making them famous far beyond
the local borders. .
Bormio - Its thermal springs are numerous in its
vicinity; the Baths take advantage of the conspicuous summer and winter
tourist attendance of the city. Bormio is also a famous ski resort in
the Alta Valtellina, to be visited even in one day. In this locality
Braulio is produced, a bitter based on herbs. An excursion to recommend
is a visit to the Stelvio Pass, about 20/22 km away and 30/35 minutes
away, which is a destination for cyclists and motorcyclists. This pass
is the highest in Italy, given that the altitude is 2758 m a.s.l.
Salice Terme — It is almost conurbated with Rivanazzano, although it is
part of the municipal territory of Godiasco. The curative qualities of
its thermal waters were well known to the Romans, who already used them.
Its thermal baths are more famous than those of nearby Rivanazzano.
San Pellegrino Terme — In the Upper Bergamasco area, the San Pellegrino
Baths were consecrated between the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, when its development as a place of spa treatment led to a
significant urban transformation.
Sirmione — The Baths of the city of
Catullo were already known and frequented by the Romans, and are still a
cornerstone of tourism in this center of precious beauty on Lake Garda.
Trescore Balneario - In the Bergamo area, its thermal baths between
Bergamo, Valcamonica and Lake Iseo were already known in the Middle
Ages.
Vallio Terme - In the Brescia area towards Val Trompia, its
thermal establishment began its activity in recent times, in the
mid-twentieth century.
Certosa di
Pavia
Sirmione Castle
By plane
Lombardy is served by the large intercontinental hub of
Milan Malpensa (IATA: MXP), located in the province of Varese and
connected to the center of Milan with the Malpensa Express train service
and various bus lines. The airport is divided into two terminals: from
terminal 1, the most modern, flights of the main national airlines
depart, while from terminal 2 mainly low-cost flights of the Easyjet
company depart.
Milan Linate Airport (IATA: LIN), on the other
hand, which only hosts national, European and low-cost traffic, is
located east of Milan.
In Bergamo then there is the Bergamo-Orio
al Serio Airport (IATA: BGY), which is mainly used for low-cost, charter
and cargo flights. The main airline operating at Orio al Serio airport
is Ryanair with flights to all major European cities such as Paris
(Beauvais), London (Stansed), Dublin, Madrid, Brussels (Charleroi),
Berlin (Schoenefeld) and Athens.
Finally, in Brescia, there is
the Montichiari Airport (IATA: VBS), dedicated almost exclusively to
cargo traffic and charter flights only.
Overall, the four
airports handle traffic exceeding 30 million passengers every year and
represent the most important airport system in Italy (the majority of
Italian air traffic is concentrated in the Lombardy area).
By car
Lombardy is served by many motorways and ring roads:
A1: Connects
Milan with Naples via Bologna, Florence, Rome.
A4: Connects Turin
with Trieste via Milan, Bergamo and Brescia.
A7: Connects Milan to
Genoa via Pavia and Voghera.
A8: It leaves from Milan with four lanes
and in Lainate it continues with three lanes for Varese.
A9: Starts
from Lainate and continues in two lanes for Ponte Chiasso and
Switzerland, passing through Como.
A21: Connects Turin with Brescia
via Voghera, Piacenza and Cremona.
A22: Connects Modena with the
Brenner pass via Mantova.
A35 : Connects Milan with Brescia.
A50 :
Connects the A8 from the Terrazzano barrier and the A1 at the Milano Sud
barrier.
A52 : Connects Monza with the A4.
On the train
The
Suburban Railway Service ("S"), made up of a total of 10 suburban lines,
connects a large part of the Milanese metropolitan area (Greater Milan),
and other important nearby cities (Saronno, Varese, Novara, etc.). The
service is managed by Trenord and, for the S5 only, by ATI between
Trenord and ATM.
The 10 S lines guarantee a train every half hour
from 06:00 to 00:30, every day of the year for a service similar to the
Metro (corresponds to the Parisian RER and the German S-Bahn). The
trains always pass at the same minute of each hour (regular timetable)
and make all the stops along the route.
In Milan you travel with
an urban fare ticket. The Regional Railway Service ("R"), on the other
hand, connects all the main cities of Lombardy and connects the region
with the national railway network. The different transport networks are
clearly distinct and can be recognized outside the stations and the
various stops thanks to specific luminous signs indicating S or R, thus
considerably facilitating the interchange between the systems.
By car
Since the A4 motorway crosses Lombardy, with the road
network radiating from its junctions, it is also possible to get around
by car. The A4 is often congested and traffic jams can be long,
especially around Milan, exactly between Pero and Agrate Brianza, where
there can be traffic jams that last even one or two hours for about 20
km.
On the train
Two integrated networks connect the region.
The national Trenitalia network, which mainly manages the east-west
route (Modane-Turin-Trieste-Villa Opicina) and the north-south routes
(Domodossola-Milan-Rome-Palermo and Chiasso-Milan-Genoa).
The Trenord
regional network, in the Milan and Brescia branches.
By bus
The region has a capillary system of suburban bus lines. Generally the
lines are operated on a provincial basis, so if you have to move from
one province to another you will probably have to make a change.
By bike
Mincio cycle path, connects Mantua to Peschiera del Garda
(43.5 km)
Mantua-Sabbioneta cycle path, connects Mantua to Sabbioneta
(46 km)
Mantua-Grazie cycle path, connects Mantua to Grazie di
Curtatone (8 km)
Lakes cycle path, route around the lakes of Mantua
(14 km)
cycle path Oglio cycle path, a path that runs along the
course of the Oglio river, from Ponte di Legno to Ponte di Barche Torre
d'Oglio, where the river flows into the Po, passing through Valle
Camonica, Lake Iseo and Franciacorta (280km).
Read more about getting
around by bike on this site.
Here you will find the
complete map of the cycle paths.
Although Lombardy is often identified as a region with a strictly
economic vocation, it has an artistic heritage of exceptional value. The
many testimonies range from prehistory to the present day, passing
through the Roman era but above all to the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance, when Lombardy was first one of the areas of maximum
flowering of medieval municipalities, then a fundamental center of the
Renaissance. The many monuments are concentrated above all in the
numerous cities of art which mostly correspond to the most important
medieval municipalities and Renaissance cities and have become, with
some exceptions, the current provincial capitals. In Lombardy, however,
there are numerous smaller towns that present significant evidence of
the past, in particular for the numerous castles and sacred buildings
scattered throughout the region. As evidence of the value of the
regional artistic heritage, Lombardy is, with nine sites, the Italian
region that hosts the largest number of World Heritage Sites protected
by UNESCO, and hosts the first Italian site to be included in the list,
the petroglyphs of Val Camonica.
In addition to the UNESCO sites,
Lombardy is home to many other treasures such as the Piazza Ducale in
Vigevano, considered one of the most beautiful squares in Italy, upper
Bergamo, with its narrow streets and palaces enclosed in walls to guard
ancient beauties and the Cathedral of Cremona .
The sites recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites are:
Monte
San Giorgio, a pyramid-shaped wooded mountain near Lake Lugano, is
considered as the best collection of marine life fossils from the
Triassic period (245-230 million years ago). These finds are evidence of
life in a tropical lagoon environment, sheltered and partially separated
from the open sea by an offshore coral reef. Various forms of marine
life flourished within this lagoon, including reptiles, fish, bivalves,
ammonites, echinoderms and crustaceans. As the lagoon was close to the
mainland, terrestrial fossils of reptiles, insects and plants are also
found among the remains, resulting in a very rich source of fossils.
Cenacolo Vinciano, in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle
Grazie in Milan, on the north wall is the Last Supper, the unparalleled
masterpiece painted between 1495 and 1497 by Leonardo da Vinci, whose
job it was to herald a new it was in the history of art.
Crespi
d'Adda: an exceptional example of a 19th/20th century "company town"
built in Europe and North America by enlightened industrialists to meet
the needs of workers. The site is still remarkably intact and partly
used for industrial purposes, although changing economic and social
conditions today are a threat to its survival.
Rock engravings of Val
Camonica. Val Camonica, located in the Lombard Alps, has one of the
largest collections of prehistoric petroglyphs in the world; more than
140,000 symbols and figures carved into rock over a period of 8,000
years and depicting themes related to agriculture, navigation, warfare
and magic. Among the sculpted symbols, to remember is the Rosa Camuna,
used as a symbol of the Lombardy Region.
Bernina Railway: a mountain
railway line that connects the city of Tirano, in Italy, with the Swiss
Sankt Moritz. Built between 1906 and 1910 for tourism purposes, the line
reaches a maximum altitude of 2,253 m with daring railway engineering
works, and is therefore the highest natural adhesion railway in the
Alps, as well as one of the steepest in the world.
Sacri Monti di
Varese and Ossuccio: the Sacri Monti are groups of chapels and other
architectural elements created in the late 16th and 17th centuries and
dedicated to different aspects of the Christian faith. In addition to
their spiritual and symbolic significance, these are of great beauty by
virtue of the skill with which they have been integrated into the
surrounding natural landscape of hills, woods and lakes.
Mantua and
Sabbioneta, in the lower part of the Po of Lombardy, represent two
aspects of Renaissance town planning: Mantua shows the renewal and
expansion of an existing city, while 30 km away, Sabbioneta represents
the implementation of the theories of the period on the planning of
ideal city. Typically, Mantua's layout is irregular with regular parts
showing different stages of its growth from the Roman period, and
includes many medieval buildings including an 11th-century rotunda and a
Baroque theatre. Sabbioneta, built in the second half of the 16th
century under the rule of a single person, Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna,
can be described as a single period town and has a right angled grid
pattern. The ideals of the Renaissance, favored by the Gonzaga family,
are present in the morphology and architecture of the cities.
Brescia
and Castelseprio fall into the category of places of power of the
Longobards to which other Italian centers such as Benevento and Cividale
del Friuli belong. In Brescia, the Capitoline Temple, from the Roman
era, and the monastery of Santa Giulia where the Cross of Desiderio is
kept are recognized as World Heritage Sites.
Prehistoric
pile-dwelling sites around the Alps: a series of 111 archaeological
pile-dwelling sites located in the Alps or in the immediate vicinity,
some of these are located in Lombardy such as Lavagnone, Lugana Vecchia,
Lucone di Polpenazze and San Sivino near Lake Garda.
Lombardy has a large number of museums (over 330) of various types:
ethnographic, historical, technical-scientific, artistic and
naturalistic, which bear witness to the historical-cultural and artistic
evolution of the region.
Among the most famous we can mention:
the National Museum of Science and Technology "Leonardo da Vinci", the
Brera Art Gallery, the Diocesan Museum, the Ambrosiana Art Gallery, the
Poldi Pezzoli Museum, the Sforzesco Castle Museums, the Civic Museum of
Natural History and the Museo del Novecento in Milan;
the Carrara
Academy in Bergamo;
the Museum of Santa Giulia, the National Museum
of Photography and the Museum of the Risorgimento of Brescia;
the
Palazzo Ducale Museum in Mantua;
the Volta Temple in Como;
the
Malaspina Art Gallery in Pavia;
the Stradivari Museum of Cremona;
the Museums of Sacred Art and the Cribs of the Basilica of Santa Maria
Assunta in Gandino (Bergamo).
There are also numerous institutions
that host relevant exhibitions and temporary exhibitions of the most
important national and international artists, as the main exhibition
centers of the region we can mention the Royal Palace and the Triennale
in Milan, Palazzo Te in Mantua and the aforementioned complex of Santa
Giulia in Brescia.
Lombard exhibition centers
Milan Rho Fair.
Bergamo New Fair.
Brescia-Brixia Expo Fair.
Gonzaga Millennial Fair.
Lario Fiere.
Cremona Fairs.
Villa Erba Fair Cernobbio.
Garda Montichiari
Exhibition Centre.
Nature tourism
Given the conformation of
the region, tourism linked to natural beauties is mainly concentrated in
the Alps and in the lakeside resorts. There is also a limited tourist
flow linked to the protected areas in the plains, in particular in the
river parks of Ticino and Mincio.
Alpine tourism
The Lombard
Alps include several mountain massifs well known to mountaineering and
mountain hiking practitioners, among the best known Pizzo Badile, Pizzo
Cengalo, Monte Disgrazia, the Bernina massif, the Adamello and the
Ortles- Cevedale. The Stelvio National Park extends around the latter,
the only national park in Lombardy on its western side. In the winter
season there are numerous ski resorts, mainly distributed in the
provinces of Sondrio, Bergamo and Brescia. The main summer and winter
mountain tourist resorts include:
Aprica, Chiesa in Valmalenco and
Val Masino in the Sondrio Valtellina.
Bormio, Livigno and Santa
Caterina Valfurva in Alta Valtellina.
Madesimo in Chiavennasco.
Edolo, Ponte di Legno and Borno in Val Camonica.
Castione della
Presolana, Colere, Foppolo and Selvino in the Upper Bergamo area.
Even the Lombard Pre-Alps, despite their lower altitude, are an
important attraction thanks to the easy access from the plain and the
remarkable panoramas (to the north you can admire a large part of the
Alpine chain while to the south the view extends over the Po Valley).
The best-known massifs of the Lombard Pre-Alps are the Grigne Group and
the Presolana.
Tourism on the lakes
The Lombardy territory
includes, wholly or in part, all the major pre-Alpine lakes. On their
shores numerous localities are destinations for lake tourism, which
combines natural and landscape beauties, historical-artistic tourism
and, limited to certain areas, bathing activities (mainly on Lake
Garda).
Among the main tourist resorts on the lakes of Lombardy
are:
Desenzano del Garda, Gardone Riviera, Limone sul Garda,
Sirmione, Salò, Toscolano Maderno on the Brescia side of Lake Garda.
Bellagio, Como, Menaggio, Tremezzo, Varenna, Cernobbio, Moltrasio,
Ossuccio, Tremezzo, Griante, Rezzonico, Lenno, Argegno, Colico, Oliveto
Lario, Mandello del Lario, Abbadia Lariana and Lecco on Lake Como.
Campione d'Italia and Porto Ceresio in the Italian portion of Lake
Lugano.
Luino, Angera, Ispra, Laveno-Mombello on the Lombard shore of
Lake Maggiore.
Iseo, Pisogne, Lovere, Sarnico and Monte Isola on Lake
Iseo.
For more information, see Lombard cuisine, Milanese cuisine, Mantuan
cuisine, Lodi cuisine, Bergamo cuisine.
Lombardy has quite
different culinary traditions, from simple and common dishes such as the
breaded cutlet or risotto with saffron, from Milan, to the more refined
ones such as the Mantegna pavone, from Mantua, from the strong ones like
the Cassoeula, to the delicate ones like pumpkin tortelli.
First
courses or unique dishes
Risotto alla Milanese: rice (usually
vialone) stewed with broth and marrow, with the addition of saffron
Cassoeula: plate of pork ribs, sausages and cabbage
Polenta: in the
Bergamo version, coarsely ground cornmeal boiled in water and salt, then
seasoned
Polenta taragna: the Valtellina version, a blend of
buckwheat flour and corn
Pizzoccheri valtellinesi: boiled buckwheat
pasta with cabbage, potatoes, ribs and seasoned with butter, casera
cheese and bitto cheese
White Pizzoccheri from Valchiavenna
Mariconda: meat broth soup with bread, topped with egg, nutmeg, grated
cheese
Casoncelli: puff pastry ravioli with seasoned meat
Pavia
soup
Marubini (or marobini): stuffed pasta anolini with a mixture of
minced meat, cheese, breadcrumbs, eggs, spices; it is a dish common to
the whole area along the Po, with variants for minced meat which can be
boiled, overcooked, or with the addition of a part of minced sausage in
the eastern area, and the use or not of spices.
Bigoli at the press
Pumpkin tortelli, typical of Mantuan cuisine
Castel Goffredo bitter
tortello
Seconds
Osso bucco: stewed beef rear leg cut, often
combined with Milanese risotto
Cotoletta alla Milanese: slice of veal
breaded and fried in butter
Baked tench with polenta in Clusane
Missoltit: salted and washed shad fish, cooked with polenta
Mantegna
style peacock
Frogs and bose
Donkey stew
Lake sardines (also
called aole)
Escaped birds: veal or pork rolls
Spit
Sausages
Bresaola: dried beef fillet, also in the variant
Slinzega: beef leg bresaola
Goose salami: in the normal variants,
with pork fat, and ecumenical, with goose fat
Strinu
Sweets
Nougat
Panettone: Toni's pan, relaunched by Angelo Motta. Baked cake
based on sweet bread with eggs, seasoned with butter, raisins, candied
fruit
Torta sbrisolona: hard and crumbly cake, made with flour,
starch and almonds
Pan meìn / Pan de mèj: Sponge cake made with wheat
and corn flour (formerly with millet flour (mej)
Bossolà: A flour and
potato starch cake
Polenta e Osei: a typical dessert from Bergamo
similar to real polenta
Cheeses
Valtellina: Bitto, Casera,
Valsassina: Taleggio, Robiola
Pavese: Stracchino
Plain:
Gorgonzola, Grana padano, Quartirolo
Drinks
You come
Lombardy has the following DOCG wines:
Moscato di Scanzo
Sforzato
(Sfursat) of Valtellina
Upper Valtellina
Franciacorta
In
addition to the previous ones, it has a fair number of DOC wines:
Bonarda dell'Oltrepò Pavese, Botticino, Buttafuoco dell'Oltrepò Pavese,
Capriano del Colle, Casteggio, Cellatica, Curtefranca, Garda, Garda
Colli Mantovani, Lambrusco Mantovano, Lugana, Oltrepò Pavese, Oltrepò
Pavese Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir from Oltrepò Pavese, Riviera del Garda
Classico, San Colombano al Lambro, San Martino della Battaglia, Sangue
di Giuda from Oltrepò Pavese, Terre del Colleoni, Valcalepio and
Valtellina Rosso.
Other noteworthy wines are:
Valtellina:
Hell, Sassella
Oltrepò Pavese: Barbera
Paths of Lombardy — 12 itineraries to discover art, nature and
history.
Via Carolingia — European itinerary that crosses the places
traveled by the court of Charlemagne between the eighth and ninth
centuries to go from Aachen to Rome, where Pope Leo III crowned the
Carolingian sovereign emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on Christmas
night in the 1800s .
Foliage in Lombardy — In autumn, in search of
the dazzling and spectacular phenomenon of "foliage".
Lombardy
waterfalls
Refuges of Lombardy
Lombardy is a safe region and the forces of order carry out a good control service. Clearly, common sense should never be abandoned, especially in Milan which, being a very populated metropolis, can be less recommendable in some areas.
The name derives from the medieval term Longobardia, used in
Byzantine Italy to designate the part of the peninsula dominated by the
Longobards, as opposed to the remainder, then called Romania.
After 888, during the Carolingian era, the term Longobardia was instead
used as the toponym of the brand of the Holy Roman Empire founded by
Charlemagne, including Milan, which had much wider borders than modern
Lombardy. Only since the constitution of the Kingdom of Italy has the
toponym referred to the current administrative subdivision.
The
name "Lombardia", which is found in the 1553 essay Descrizionione di
tutto Italia by F. Leandro Alberti with the subdivision into "Lombardia
di qua dal Po" and "Lombardia di là dal Po", therefore still with a
meaning that went beyond to the current borders of the region, it was
brought back to modern use after the War of the Spanish Succession when
the Austrian Empire, which took possession of this region in 1714, began
to refer to it as "Austrian Lombardy". From this point on, the term
"Lombardy" began to define a more limited territory, roughly
corresponding to the modern Italian region.
In the Po Valley various objects have been found that testify to the
diffusion therein as early as the 3rd millennium BC. of man, already
present at least since the Pleistocene in the pre-Alpine area.
The first civilizations that developed were the Camuna (in the
Neolithic) and the Golasecca culture (Bronze Age). The central-eastern
Lombard area was affected by an Etruscan influence around the 5th
century BC. Subsequently, in the fourth century BC, the region was
invaded by various Gallic peoples, who will give life to the
confederations of the Insubri, in western Lombardy where they will give
rise to the foundation of Milan, and of the Cenomani, in eastern
Lombardy and in the lower Garda area and the banks of the Po.
At
the end of the III century B.C. the ancient Romans began the conquest of
the Po Valley, clashing with the Insubri Gauls, while the Cenomani Gauls
were their allies from the beginning. The province later gave birth to
famous exponents of Latin culture, such as Pliny in Como and Virgil in
Mantua.
In the last centuries of the Western Roman Empire, Milan
(Mediolanum) greatly increased its importance as a political and
religious center (with the episcopate of Sant'Ambrogio), so much so that
it became one of the seats of the tetrarchs at the time of Constantine,
the which in 313 AD. he issued an edict called the edict of Milan,
through which all subjects were granted the freedom to profess their
religion, even to Christians, until then excluded from this right.
At the fall of the Western Roman Empire (the siege of Pavia and the
consequent death of Flavio Orestes were the main episodes of the fall of
the Western Roman Empire) it was the barbarians who dominated the
region: first the Heruli of Odoacer arrived (476-493), then the
Ostrogoths of Theodoric the Great (493-553), who made Pavia one of the
seats (together with Ravenna and Verona) of their kingdom. Lombardy then
returned to be part of the Roman Empire (this time of the Byzantine
Empire) after the Gothic War, which lasted about 20 years and which
scourged the whole of Italy. After a few years of Byzantine imperial
rule, in 568 the Lombards attacked and conquered a large part of Italy,
and placed their capital in Pavia.
It was precisely in this
period that the term Langobardia began to be called the territories
occupied by the Lombards, i.e. a large part of the Po Valley and
present-day Tuscany (Langobardia Maior) and the duchies of Spoleto and
Benevento in central and southern Italy (Langobardia Minor). In the
seventh century the term "Lombardy" began to specifically designate the
Carolingian brand including Milan and Pavia, previously known as Liguria
or Neustria, even if it continued for more than a millennium to
designate the whole of central-northern Italy in a broad sense (see
Lombardy (historical region)).
In 774 the king of the Franks
Charlemagne - who had descended into Italy the previous year, at the
invitation of Pope Adrian I threatened by the Lombards - conquered
Pavia, took King Desiderius prisoner to Gaul and proclaimed himself king
of the Franks and the Lombards, while boasting the title of king of
Italy his second son Pepin. The Frankish dominion gave rise to the
feudal political structure which characterized the High Middle Ages.
With the Carolingian sovereigns, Lombardy was part of the Kingdom of
Italy (800-1024), which was immediately endowed with a large autonomy
and which aimed, without achieving it completely, at a centralized
organization of the administrative, judicial and financial functions of
the state , concentrated in the capital, Pavia.
In the Po Valley
of the late Middle Ages a new political model began to spread: the
medieval municipality, protagonist of a repopulation of the cities. In
1176 the Lombard League defeated the troops of Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa in the battle of Legnano. The peace of Constance of 1183
sanctioned at the same time the formal obedience of the municipalities
to the emperor and the substantial recognition of the municipal autonomy
by the sovereign. Starting from the thirteenth century, the municipal
model went into crisis and was soon supplanted by the nascent Lordships:
the Gonzagas in Mantua, the Viscontis and then the Sforzas in Milan.
In the second half of the Middle Ages, in what was called Lombardy
(i.e. northern Italy) the southern part (Tuscany) and the eastern part
(Marca Trevigiana, Marca Veronese) began to differentiate: the term
"Lombardy", from then on , began to identify only the part of the Po
Valley located northwest of the Mincio river, above all the territories
subject to the dominion of the Visconti first and then of the Sforza. In
the fifteenth century Lombardy again became a land of conquest: first
the Venetians arrived from the east, then the French claimed the
remaining part of the Duchy of Milan which was then ceded, after long
years of war, the culminating event of which was the battle of Pavia del
1525, to the Spaniards who remained there for a long time, formally
still under the aegis of the Holy Roman Empire.
During this
domination the region experienced, after an initial period of
prosperity, a progressive decline, aggravated in the seventeenth century
by plague epidemics. In 1714 the Duchy of Milan, following the war of
the Spanish succession, passed by inheritance from the Spanish Habsburgs
to the Austrian Habsburgs; finally the Austrians also obtained the Duchy
of Mantua.
The eastern part of the region, annexed to the
Republic of Venice during the fifteenth century, included the
territories of Bergamo, Crema, Brescia and Salò, which therefore
followed a different history from the rest of the region until 1797,
when Lombardy again experienced, after centuries of division, political
and administrative unity under the aegis of Napoleon Bonaparte.
After the experience of the Transpadana Republic, the Cisalpine
Republic, the Kingdom of Italy (of which Milan was formally the capital
with Napoleon Bonaparte king of Italy), all states dependent on
Napoleonic France, the Restoration created the Lombardo-Veneto Kingdom
again under the Austrian Habsburgs.
Lombardy was then an
important center of the Risorgimento, with the Five Days of Milan in
March 1848 and the subsequent plebiscite, the Ten Days of Brescia in
1849, the Martyrs of Belfiore in Mantua in the years between 1851 and
1853. The annexation of Lombardy to the Kingdom of Sardinia occurred
following the second war of independence in 1859, a war during which
Lombardy was the main battle scene (battles of Montebello, Palestro,
Magenta, Solferino and San Martino and San Fermo). In 1861, with the
proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, Lombardy became part of the modern
Italian state, with the exception of the central-eastern part of the
province of Mantua which was annexed in 1866 after the third war of
independence. As for the battle of Solferino, it was during this
conflict that Henry Dunant took the initiative to create the Red Cross.
The Alpine front of the First World War crossed the eastern Lombard
side of the Alps, and in the first post-war period Milan was the center
of the Italian Combat Fasci. Milan then became the Gold Medal for
Military Valor for the Resistance after its liberation from fascism
during the Second World War, while the partisan resistance was spreading
in the valleys and provinces.
In the years of the economic boom,
Milan was one of the poles of the "industrial triangle" of northern
Italy. The Years of Lead had great significance in Lombardy, with the
Piazza Fontana massacre in Milan in 1969 and the Piazza della Loggia
massacre in Brescia in 1974.
In the eighties of the twentieth
century Milan became a symbol of the country's economic growth, and a
symbol of the economic-financial rampantism of the "Milan to drink",
while the Milanese socialist group of Bettino Craxi was in the national
government. The city of Milan, in the early 1990s, was the origin of the
series of scandals known as Tangentopoli that emerged from the judicial
investigations of the Milan prosecutor's office known as Clean Hands,
which then spread to the rest of the country.