Lombardy

Celtic Insubres founded Mediolanum, later Milan, before Rome conquered the plain in the late 3rd century BC. By the end of the 3rd century AD Milan was a capital of the Western Empire, and it was here in 313 that Constantine's Edict of Milan granted toleration to Christians; Saint Ambrose, bishop from 374, became the city's patron. The Lombards, a Germanic people who invaded in 568, gave the region its name and ruled from Pavia.

In the Middle Ages the Lombard communes grew rich, and the Lombard League defeated Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at Legnano in 1176. Milan then fell to the Visconti and the Sforza, whose court employed Leonardo da Vinci, while the Gonzaga ruled Mantua from 1328 to 1708 and Bergamo and Brescia were held by Venice for more than three centuries. Milan passed to Spain in 1535 and to Austria in 1714.

Napoleon made Milan the capital of his Kingdom of Italy, and after 1815 it returned to Austria. The Five Days uprising of 1848 failed, but after the battle of Solferino in 1859 Lombardy joined Piedmont and then united Italy. It became the heart of Italian industry and finance — Pirelli, Alfa Romeo, the stock exchange — and of the postwar economic miracle. The Tangentopoli corruption scandal broke in Milan in 1992, and in 2020 Bergamo and its valleys were among the worst-hit places in Europe in the first wave of Covid-19.

The Milanese see themselves as hard-working, efficient and European, and the city's pace is faster and more businesslike than the rest of Italy's. Milan is Italy's capital of fashion, design, publishing and advertising, with fashion weeks twice a year and the Salone del Mobile furniture fair each April. Opera at La Scala, whose season opens on 7 December, the feast of Saint Ambrose, remains a social event, and AC Milan and Inter share the San Siro stadium and a fierce rivalry.

Lombard dialects, varying from Milanese to Bergamasque in the eastern valleys, are still heard among older people. Crafts are strong in the provinces: Cremona is the home of Stradivari and Guarneri, and its traditional violin making is recognised as UNESCO intangible heritage; Como is known for silk; and the Brianza north of Milan for furniture.

Local pride runs deep. Bergamo and Brescia maintain a rivalry sharpened on the football pitch, the lake towns have their own patron-saint feasts and boat processions, and Mantua hosts the Festivaletteratura, a literary festival, each September. The ritual of the aperitivo, a drink with food in the early evening, is a fixture of Milanese life.

About 10 million people live in Lombardy, roughly a sixth of Italy's population. Milan has around 1.4 million residents and more than three million in its metropolitan area; Brescia has about 200,000, Monza and Bergamo about 120,000 each, and Como, Varese, Pavia, Cremona and Mantua are smaller provincial capitals.

The region produces around a fifth of Italy's economic output. Milan is the home of the stock exchange, banks, insurers, the fashion houses and many multinationals' Italian headquarters; Brescia and Bergamo are centres of metalworking and machinery; and the plain is intensively farmed, producing dairy, rice, maize and pigs. Several major universities, including the Politecnico and Bocconi, draw students from across Italy.

Life in Milan is fast, with long working days, quick lunches and busy evenings; the lake and valley towns are slower. Current issues include housing costs in Milan, air pollution in the Po plain, commuter traffic and the legacy of hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics jointly with Cortina.

Lombard cooking uses butter, rice, polenta and slow-cooked meat more than olive oil and pasta. Milan's classics are risotto alla milanese, coloured yellow with saffron, ossobuco, braised veal shank, often served with it, and the cotoletta alla milanese, a breaded veal cutlet fried in butter. Winter brings cassoeula, a stew of pork and cabbage. The Valtellina contributes pizzoccheri, buckwheat pasta baked with potatoes, cabbage and cheese, and bresaola, air-dried beef. Bergamo and Brescia make casoncelli, stuffed pasta dressed with butter and sage, and polenta taragna, maize and buckwheat polenta with melted cheese. Mantua is known for tortelli di zucca, pasta filled with pumpkin and amaretti, and on Lake Como sun-dried shad called missoltini are grilled.

Lombardy makes more cheese than almost anywhere in Italy: Gorgonzola, Taleggio, Grana Padano, Bitto, stracchino and mascarpone. Sweets include panettone, Milan's Christmas bread with candied fruit, Mantua's crumbly almond sbrisolona and Cremona's torrone nougat.

Wines include Franciacorta, a bottle-fermented sparkling wine, the reds of the Oltrepò Pavese and the Valtellina, and white Lugana from Lake Garda's southern shore. Campari opened its first factory near Milan in 1904, and the Negroni sbagliato was born at the city's Bar Basso.

Milan's sights cluster around the Duomo, a Gothic cathedral whose roof can be walked among its spires, the glass-roofed Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and La Scala. Leonardo's Last Supper is in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, and the city also has the Pinacoteca di Brera, the Castello Sforzesco, Sant'Ambrogio, the canals of the Navigli and the Bosco Verticale towers.

North of Milan, Lake Como has Como's cathedral and lakefront, Bellagio on its promontory, Varenna, and the villas and gardens of Villa Carlotta at Tremezzo and Villa del Balbianello at Lenno. Bergamo's Città Alta sits inside Venetian walls, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the Colleoni Chapel and Santa Maria Maggiore. Further north lie the Valtellina, Bormio, Livigno and Stelvio National Park, and in the Valcamonica thousands of prehistoric rock carvings form Italy's first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

To the east, Brescia has its Roman Capitolium and the monastery of Santa Giulia, and between Brescia and Lake Iseo spread the vineyards of Franciacorta, with Monte Isola rising from the lake. On Lake Garda's western shore are Sirmione, with its Scaliger castle and the Roman villa known as the Grottoes of Catullus, Salò, the Vittoriale of Gabriele D'Annunzio at Gardone Riviera, and Limone sul Garda. In the south, Mantua holds the Palazzo Ducale, with Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi, and Palazzo Te, while Cremona has its violin museum and cathedral square, and Pavia its Certosa monastery.