| Northwestern Italy | |
 | |
Location  | |
| State | Italy |
|---|---|
| Surface | 57 950 km² |
| Inhabitants | 16.113.972 (2019) |
Northwestern Italy is a region ofItaly.
To know
North-western Italy, also known more simply as North-West, is that part of the Italian territory that includes the regions Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont is Valle d'Aosta.
Geographical notes
It borders to the west with the France via the Western Alps, to the north with the Switzerland through the central Alps, to the east with the regions Trentino Alto Adige, Veneto ed Emilia Romagna belonging toNortheastern Italy and to the south with the Ligurian Sea and the extreme offshoot of the Tuscany incentral Italy. North-western Italy encompasses a large part of the Po Valley and is crossed by the River Po, the longest in Italy.
Background
In historical terms of the last centuries the North-West is mainly identified in the domains of the House of Savoy and therefore the continental part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which included in addition to the Piedmont, the Valle d'Aosta and the Liguria. There Lombardy, although culturally linked also to Piedmont and to Liguria, on the other hand, has historically developed greater political and economic ties with the Veneto (Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia) and therefore with theNortheastern Italy.
Territories and tourist destinations
Lombardy - One of the most industrialized regions of the north, has in Milan its economic engine. The industry of the huge conglomerate of the metropolis, which unites dozens and dozens of cities, is not the only source of income. Agriculture, once a prevalent activity in this land that counts on the vast part of the flat territory constituted by the Po Valley, formed by the Po and its tributaries, still constitutes a good part of the regional productive activity together with an important induced. The tourist product is also noteworthy, fueled by the large presence of cities of art and by the infrastructural development of the long Alpine arc, where there are several ski resorts as well as summer climatic resorts. Just below the high alpine peaks, even the area of the great foothills lakes in terms of tourist attractiveness reaches large numbers of presences.The main cities of this region are Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Lecco, Praise, Mantua, Monza, Pavia, Sondrio is Varese.
Liguria - The ancient Ligurians populated the whole region in prehistoric times and also vast areas beyond the current administrative borders. Regional unity came to her from Genoa, a seafaring city that competed for supremacy over the Mediterranean with Pisa, Amalfi is Venice. Between the 11th and 14th centuries Genoa united under its own dominion, not without bloody struggles, all the Ligurian cities. The Napoleonic occupation put an end to the independence of the oligarchic Republic; the Congress of Vienna sanctioned its disappearance assigning it to Piedmont Savoy. Rich in seaside towns full of history, Liguria offers to a consolidated tourism for decades a landscape characterized by the interpenetration between sea and mountains, which often descend almost vertically on the narrow coast full of ravines, harbors, coves. Important Roman archaeological areas are in Ventimiglia and Luni. The Romanesque monuments in the cities show clear Lombard, Pisan, French and Byzantine influences, that is, of the populations most frequently in contact with the Ligurians due to the many businesses. The Renaissance is witnessed in particular in Genoa. The main cities of Liguria are Genoa, Savona, Imperia, Spice, Sanremo, Portofino, Santa Margherita Ligure, Ventimiglia, Alassio, Sestri Levante, Rapallo, Varazze , Loano, Chiavari, Monterosso al Mare, Lerici, Finale Ligure,Blackboard, Sarzana is Albenga.
Piedmont - An austere land, as are its cities and its inhabitants, the realization of Italian national unity started from Piedmont, when the times indicated that the need had matured by now. The Savoy dynasty, after having dominated Piedmont for centuries, made for a short time Turin also the capital of the new Italian state. In recent times, the years of the economic boom have seen Turin, like Milan, to drive and stimulate the national economy that was opening up to industrialization, which produced the rush to urbanization from the countryside, from the mountains, from the south of the nation.The automotive giant Fiat has perhaps somewhat obscured, and certainly monopolized, the panorama industry of the region. The arrival of less happy economic periods, compared to the sixties, has reduced the unbridled rush to industrialization, bringing attention back to other economic fields, not least the tourism to which Piedmont has to offer, in quantity, artistic beauties in the cities, and natural beauties especially in its mountains.
Valle d'Aosta - A completely alpine land, Valle d'Aosta, or Val d'Aosta, but also La Vallée, maintains its dual Italian-French nature in language and traditions. The unreachable peaks of Mont Blanc, of the Monte Rosa, of the Matterhorn that surround and enclose the territory have not made it impermeable to external influences; the steps of Little Saint Bernard with the France he was born in Great St. Bernard with the Switzerland over the centuries they have been instruments of contact and exchange with the transalpine world. From here passed pilgrims, travelers, traders, armies. Its turrets and numerous Nordic-style castles were a bulwark against invading armies, but also refined noble residences. Tourism has brought prosperity and development, favoring the economy of the whole valley which also benefits from an elitist and worldly tourism attracted by the gambling halls of the Casino of Saint-Vincent. Aosta, Courmayeur, Ayas, Saint Vincent, Bard.
Urban centers
Bergamo - the Colleoni Chapel
Genoa - The lantern
Mantua - Sordello square
Turin - Basilica of Superga
- Aosta — Augusta Praetoria Salassorum it was a Roman city, an imperial outpost among these mountain valleys around which rise the highest peaks of the Alps. It was founded on an ancient center of a population of megalithic culture which was followed by the Salassi. Aosta still retains important imperial vestiges. Its border position made it a bridge between the French and Italian-speaking world, so much so that the city and its Vallée bilingualism has been officially recognized, as well as status of autonomous region.
- Bergamo - City of ancient atmospheres, Bergamo Alta from its refuge on a hill looks at the new modern city that is spreading like wildfire. Modernity did not hurt the ancient city, it did not outrage it; she has kept away from it with respectful respect. And this is why she can proudly show the tourist, almost like in a painting, the image of her wonderfully intact ancient heart on the hill where the city was born.
- Brescia - Vast and modern, the Lioness, the second largest city in Lombardy by population, climbs up with some districts on the first hills, and expands more and more in the plains. In its ancient part, however, it retains many traces of Roman Brixia, of the Lombards who made it the capital of a prosperous and vast Duchy as well as of the over three hundred years of Venetian rule, during which it was a quiet and flourishing city of the Mainland. The museum complexes of Santa Giulia are of great importance.
- Courmayeur - Located at the foot of the Mont Blanc massif, it is the oldest alpine station in the Valle d'Aosta, home to numerous world-famous guides and home to the first Italian association of mountain guides. The town is surrounded by numerous hamlets which maintain the architectural characteristics of traditional houses intact. From here you can access the Mont Blanc Tunnel, 11,600 meters long, which crosses the Mont Blanc chain to arrive in France at the foot of the Bossons glacier.
- Genoa - The Superb it was the proud capital of the Maritime Republic which it fought for a long time Venice, Pisa is Amalfi the dominance over the Mediterranean seas and trade. Its historic center, squeezed between the sea and the looming mountains, develops palaces of elegant elegance and prestigious churches. The neighborhoods around the port flaunt the colors and atmospheres of seaside cities, where traffic, commerce and life stories '' a little like this '' intertwine as a famous song that celebrates it. The inseparable link of the city with its sea is consecrated by its symbol: the Lantern, which stands at the end of the long pier of its important port.
- Spice - Second Ligurian municipality by population, the city is located at the extreme east of the Liguria a few kilometers from the border with Tuscany, in the center of a deep natural gulf, to which it gives its name, but which is also known by the nickname of Gulf of Poets. The inlet is surrounded by a chain of hills, the highest peak of which is Monte Verrugoli, an asperity which is located at the western end of the town. Its port, commercial, military and cruise ship facilities constitute a maritime hub of great importance.
- Mantua - UNESCO World Heritage Site. The recognition seals the prestige and charm of the capital of the Gonzagas, who made it one of the most refined courts in Renaissance Europe. The Doge's Palace (actually an agglomeration of buildings from various eras) is one of the largest royal houses.
- Milan - "Moral capital", "Economic capital", "Lombard metropolis", "City of Madunìna"and so on: they are all slogans that describe theappearance of Milan, not his essence tourist, which is the most human-sized, most familiar city of the ancient villages of old Milan that hides its 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 gilded and adored Madonnina, to reveal to everyone the greatness, the dynamism, the ingenuity that brought the most intimate and subdued ancient Milan onto the world stage.
- Sabbioneta - World Heritage ofUNESCO. Vespasiano Gonzaga dreamed of it and built it according to the canons of the ideal city; within its circle of starry walls, the charm of this small capital that seems to rise out of nowhere in the countryside is rediscovered intact sandy of the Po.
- Sanremo — City of flowers and of the Festival, is an important center of the western Riviera.
- Turin - The sober elegance of the Savoyard city is superimposed on the Roman checkerboard layout Augusta Taurinorum: long straight avenues that cross perpendicularly where the nascent Po plain replaces the Alps. Following the vicissitudes of its lords, the Savoy, it became the first capital of united Italy. The Savoy palace, piazza Castello, the Basilica of Superga but even more the Mole Antonelliana are its artistic symbols; Fiat is the economic symbol. The metropolis, with Milan is Genoa, is one of the three industrial poles of north-western Italy and was the protagonist of the nation's economic rebirth in the boom years.
Other destinations
Lake Maggiore - Upper Island
Garda lake - Sirmione
- Five lands - Thanks to the geographical and anthropic characteristics of the territory where they arise, the Cinque Terre are considered one of the most evocative Italian coastal attractions, for their naturally rugged and rugged hilly context, softened by the construction of terraces for cultivation, which falls towards the sea with steep slopes; in the points where the sea winds serpentinely into the earth there are villages, Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore, articulated to follow the natural shape of the hills. The Cinque Terre are since 1997 World Heritage.
- Lake Maggiore - A natural environment of enchanting beauty, views and inlets that look like pictures, coastal villages of elegant simplicity and great charm; it is not for nothing that the lake has transformed its notoriety from national to global, also thanks to the presence on its shores of world-famous personalities, which actually invests the Piedmontese side rather than the Lombard one. Angera, Intra, Ispra, Laveno, Not him, Maccagno is Pallanza are its most famous Lombard and Piedmontese coastal centers. The northern part is in Swiss territory, and has in Locarno its largest city.
- Lake Como - Lake Como, with the cities of Como is Lecco constitutes a homogeneous tourist area that in addition to the two major cities groups the coastal centers of its shores, even if belonging to three different provincial administrative subdivisions: Cernobbio, Tremezzo, Menaggio, Gravedona, Colico, Bellano, Varenna, Bellagio, all centers that enjoy a thriving tourist economy.
- Lake Garda - The largest body of water on the Peninsula and in the Lombardy it offers tourist opportunities of various kinds: climatic stays, even in winter, for the elderly and families, bathing and water sports activities; excursions on the reliefs that surround the lake basin; entertainment for young people in the countless clubs and amusement parks that arise near it also on the shore Venetian.
There are also other smaller lakes but always well known such as the Comabbio Lake, the Lake Iseo, the Idro lake, the Lake Orta and the Varese Lake.
How to get
How to get around
What see
Northwestern Italy boasts places of world-class artistic, historical and cultural interest, recognized by theUNESCO as part of the World Heritage.
List of world heritage sites in northwestern Italy
Lombardy
 | Monte San Giorgio - It is a pyramid-shaped wooded mountain near the Lugano lake considered to be the best collection of marine life fossils from the Triassic period (245-230,000,000 years ago). These finds are a testimony of life in a tropical lagoon environment, sheltered and partially separated from the open sea by an offshore coral reef. Several forms of marine life flourished within this lagoon, including reptiles, fish, bivalves, ammonites, echinoderms and crustaceans. Since 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. |
 | Last Supper - In the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie a Milan, on the north wall is theLast Supper, the matchless masterpiece painted between 1495 and 1497 by Leonardo da Vinci, whose work was to herald a new era in art history. |
 | Crespi d'Adda - An outstanding example of a 19th / 20th century "corporate city" 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. |
.jpg/150px-Rosa_camuna_R24_-_Foppe_-_Nadro_(Foto_Luca_Giarelli).jpg) | Rock engravings of the Val Camonica - Val camonica, located inLombard Alps, has one of the largest collections in the world of prehistoric petroglyphs; more than 140,000 symbols and figures carved into the 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 connecting the city of Tirano, in Italy, with the SwitzerlandSankt 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 railway with natural grip in the Alps, as well as one of the steepest in the world. |
 | Sacri Monti of Varese and Ossuccio - Appointed together with those of Piedmont, i Sacred Mountains they are groups of chapels and other architectural elements created at the end of the 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 is Sabbioneta - In Bassa del Po di Lombardia, represent two aspects of Renaissance urbanism: 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 planning the ideal city. Typically, Mantua's pattern 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 theater. 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 city of a single period and has a right-angled grid pattern. The ideals of the Renaissance, favored by the family Gonzaga, are present in the morphology and architecture of the cities. |
_int2.jpg/150px-Santa_maria_in_solario_(brescia)_int2.jpg) | Brescia is Castelseprio - They fall into the category the places of power of the Lombards to which other Italian centers such as Benevento is Cividale del Friuli. The Temple is recognized as a World Heritage Site in Brescia Capitoline, from Roman times, and the monastery of Santa Giulia in which the Cross of Desire. |
 | Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps - A series of 111 pile-dwelling archaeological sites located on the Alps or in the immediate vicinity, some of these are located in Lombardy as Lavagnone, Lugana Vecchia, Lucone of Polpenazze and San Sivino in the vicinity of the Lake Garda. |
Piedmont
 | Savoy residences in Piedmont - When Emanuele-Filiberto, Duke of Savoy, moved the capital to Turin in 1562, he began a vast series of construction projects (continued by his successors) to demonstrate the power of the ruling house. This exceptional complex of buildings, designed and embellished by the architects and artists of the time, radiates into the surrounding countryside from the Palazzo Reale in Turin's "command zone" including many residences and hunting lodges. |
 | Sacri Monti del Piedmont - Join the Sacri Monti della LombardyThe nine Sacri Monti of northern Italy are groups of chapels and other architectural elements created at the end of the 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. They also house much more important artistic material, in the form of wall paintings and statues. |
Liguria
 | Portovenere, the Five lands and the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto - The Ligurian coast between the Cinque Terre and Portovenere is a territory of great landscape and cultural value. The layout and layout of the small towns as well as the conformation of the surrounding landscape, which overcomes the disadvantages of steep and uneven terrain, encapsulate the continuing history of human settlement in this region over the last millennium. |
 | The Strade Nuove and the Palazzi dei Rolli in Genoa - The Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli in the historic center of Genoa date back to the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Republic of Genoa was at the height of its financial and seafaring power. The site represents the first example in Europe of an urban development project of subdivision by a public authority in a unitary framework and with a particular associated system of "public accommodation" in private residences, as decreed by the Senate in 1576. The site includes a set of Renaissance and Baroque palaces along the so-called "new expired roads" (Strade Nuove). I Palazzi dei Rolli offer an extraordinary variety of different solutions, reaching a universal value by adapting to the particular characteristics of the site and to the needs of a specific social and economic organism. They also offer an original example of a public network of private residences designated to host state visits. |
What to do
At the table
There are many places to taste many Northern Italian specialties such as Courmayeur (where you can taste fontina, a typical Aosta Valley dish, which can also be tasted in other tourist cities such as Aosta is Cogne), Livigno (where you can taste pizzoccheri, a typical Valtellinese dish, which can also be tasted in other tourist cities such as Bormio is Chiavenna, but also the polenta taragna), Sunrise (where you can taste black and white truffles, but also in other tourist cities such as Barolo is Barbaresco, famous for fine wines), Milan (where you can taste the Milanese risotto, obviously with its many variations and ossobuco, even in luxury restaurants).
You can also enjoy good fish meals in city restaurants such as Sanremo, Santa Margherita Ligure, Rapallo is Portofino.
In all regions there are typical products, for example the Lombardy it is famous for the Bitto, the Taleggio DOP, the Bresaola della Valtellina, the Salami of Varzi, famous inOltrepò Pavese, the apples of the Valtellina and onions of Breme. Of course there are many other less known products but always in the IGP, DOP, IGT classifications.
Drinks
Lombardy is famous for its wines Franciacorta, of the Valtellina andOltrepò Pavese.
Safety
Other projects
Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Northwestern Italy
