Lombard Po Valley is one of the four tourist areas into which the Lombardy.
To know
It is the area of the flat countryside but above all of the wild urbanization with the large metropolitan areas and the conurbations of Milan and its vast hinterland, of Monza and of Brianza, of Saronno, Busto Arsizio, Gallarate, is Legnano, which, however, boast a tourist offer from cities of art (Milan) or of a good level (all the others).
Moving our gaze from the immense Milanese agglomeration, which monopolizes the entire eastern area, the cities of Cream, which for a long time was a Venetian enclave in the Duchy of Milan, and which boasts a beautiful cathedral, as well as remains of Venetian walls; Treviglio; Pandino is Soncino, with their turreted castles; Castel Goffredo is Castiglione delle Stiviere, Gonzaga capitals; Buttonhole, Gonzaga but with important Venetian atmospheres that derive from its past linked to the Serenissima.
The name derives from the presence of the Po, in Latin padus, the longest river in Italy.
Geographical notes
The area occupies a central portion of Lombardy.
Territories and tourist destinations
Alto Milanese — Busto Arsizio, Saronno, Legnano, Gallarate, Castellanza are the main cities of this area which is administratively divided between the provinces of Milan is Varese, but in fact constitutes a unicum interprovincial of considerable economic and demographic weight; to further underline its homogeneity, just think that Busto Arsizio, Castellanza and Legnano form a conurbation that effectively nullifies the administrative boundaries. However, the centers of the Upper Milanese are not only industry and building development, but offer interesting monuments.
Milanese — Milan and all its conurbation are the political, industrial, economic, administrative engine of the Lombardy; the city is also a center of primary importance on a national level and among European metropolises, and has also carved out its own position on the world scene. In his belt, for sure crushed from the weight of the metropolis, there are important and populous cities: Sesto San Giovanni, Peschiera Borromeo, Abbiategrasso, Magenta, Rho, Trezzano sul Naviglio, Rozzano. In the Milanese countryside important religious buildings, exemplary for the history of Lombard art: Clairvaux, Viboldone, Mirasole, Morimondo.
Brianza - The boundaries never exactly established do not prevent Brianza, whose main center is Monza, to have a solid social, economic, historical homogeneity. Hilly to the north, flat to the south where it dissolves into the infinite Milanese conurbation, Brianza keeps alive in the monuments and in the memory the incisive Lombard presence, a people of which it preserves the famous Iron crown coated with gold and covered with gems, which tradition has it was forged with a nail from the cross of Christ. In medieval times it crowned the kings of Italy, and was also surrounded by Napoleon.
Lower Bergamo area - Between the Bergamo Prealps, the Adda, Oglio and Cremasco, the Bassa Bergamasca has Treviglio its most important center and in Caravaggio a center of spirituality; the call of its Marian shrine far exceeds the borders of the territory, attracting pilgrimages not only from the Region, but also from more distant places.
Cremasco - The homogeneous area of Crema, which surrounds the city of Cream, is an area of surviving fortified villages (Pandino is Soncino to the north, in defense of the borders with Milan, Pizzighettone south), or who were (Castelleone); land of towers and turrets (Crema, Pizzighettone, Castelleone), land of monumental sacred temples (Cathedral of Crema, Santa Maria della Croce, Santa Maria della Pietà, Santa Maria di Bressanoro).
Lower Brescia - It is the flat territory that extends between Brescia with its Prealps and the Oglio river to the south, between Lower Bergamo area to the west and Alto Mantovano to the east. Orzinuovi, Verolanuova, Pontevico, Gambara, Leno, Carpenedolo are its major centers, which combine a solid agricultural tradition with an industrial development of considerable importance.
Alto Mantovano - Gonzaga land, which extends from the Oglio to the first ones morainic hills of Garda (the latter, on the other hand, was a dream never achieved for the Gonzagas), it preserves important monuments and urban systems of the Dukes of Mantua who in these lands gave life with the cadet branches to refined courts and to autonomous seignories with the cities of Castiglione delle Stiviere, Castel Goffredo, Medole (for a short time). Land of saints, where San Luigi Gonzaga was born and trained. Land of battles (Solferino) but also of great humanitarian impulses: the Red Cross was born in Castiglione during the First World War.
Urban centers
- Abbiategrasso - The city was enriched with monuments, towers and defenses from Sforza and Visconti. Bramante also contributed to the embellishment works with his genius. In the fertile countryside of its countryside, on the road that leads to Pavia, meets the important monastic complex of the Abbey of Morimondo.
- Buttonhole - On the left of the Chiese, coveted by the Visconti and Gonzagas, it put an end to their disputes by giving itself to the Venetians who held it for three hundred and fifty years, to whom it owes its urban layout and its monuments. .
- Busto Arsizio - The industrial fortune of the city, which with Legnano is Castellanza it forms one of the largest conurbations in Lombardy, it has its roots in the distant fourteenth century, when the main activity was already the tanning of skins and the processing of linen. Its historic center preserves art monuments.
- Castel Goffredo - It was one of the "capitals" of the Gonzaga, at the time when Aloisio Gonzaga was lord of Castel Goffredo, Castiglione and Solferino. Today it is known as the "city of the sock", for its countless industries and is home to the "Textile Industrial District number 6", made up of 15 municipalities in Mantua, Brescia and Cremona.
- Castiglione delle Stiviere - City of about 23,000 inhabitants linked to the memory of San Luigi Gonzaga and his dynasty. It houses the International Museum of the Red Cross, which found its origin here. It is an important industrial center in the Mantua area that counts the presence of some market leaders in their sectors.
- Cream - It has a history of proud Lombard Commune razed to the ground in 1160 by Barbarossa. He fought hard against Cremona. Its belonging to the Republic of Venice for over three centuries, wedged in the Milanese territory, deeply linked it to the territory of which it is the capital.
- 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 city more on a human scale, more familiar, 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.
- Montichiari - It was and is an important agricultural market since the time of the Serenissima to which it belonged. It develops at the foot of the first corrugations of the Garda morainic amphitheater.
- Monza - Royalty has always gone hand in hand with Monza, which was a resting place from the Ostrogoth kings to the Lombard Teodolinda and the more recent Savoy. In fact, the urban regality of its historic center, which includes famous monuments, owes it to the particular attention that so many sovereigns have dedicated to it. Industrial and populous, it is the third largest city in the region by population. Known more for its racetrack than for its architectural beauties, Monza pays for the cumbersome proximity to Milan which seems to want to swallow it up, absorbing it in its immense rampant conurbation.
- Treviglio - Main center of the Lower Bergamo area, maintains relations with the Cremasco to which it approaches a certain similarity of language and the common ancient belonging to the Serenissima. It is a city of agriculture but also of industry. In the nineteenth century it was the capital of the spinning mills for the processing of silk produced by the flourishing sericulture conducted on site.
Other destinations
- Caravaggio - It is known above all as a center of faith; in Caravaggio there is one of the best known and most popular Marian shrines in the Region.
- Leno - Its Abbey, which was born in the eighth century, was one of the most important monasteries of the Lombard plain. It achieved a high economic power, extending its land holdings like wildfire. After a long period of decline, which began with the Venetian domination, the Abbey was finally abandoned. Having become a quarry for building material to be reused, it was finally demolished with its appurtenances after almost a millennium of existence.
- Lissone - Important furniture production center, a characteristic sector of Brianza.
How to get
By plane
- 1 Bergamo-Orio al Serio Airport (the Caravaggio), Via Aeroporto 13, Orio al Serio, ☎ 39 035 326323.
- 2 Milan-Malpensa Airport (MXP), Ferno. The airport has two terminals (T1 and T2), the second is used for low cost flights. The bus service Motorway connects the airport with Milan central station in about 50 minutes, while the Malpensa Express it connects Terminal 1 with Cadorna station (red and green line underground) in 40 minutes. The buses of the Sadem is Motorway reach the city of Turin (2 hours), while the company Foxes make a few trips for Genoa (3 hours).
- Verona Airport (Catullus), Boxes of Sommacampagna, ☎ 39 045 8095666, @[email protected].
- Brescia Airport (D'Annunzio), Via Aeroporto 34, Montichiari (Connections with Brescia airport are guaranteed by public transport via the bus. The stop a Brescia city is located at the bus station (number 23), while that of the airport is at the front of the terminal. There are also connections to the city of Verona via bus / shuttle line 1), ☎ 39 045 8095666, @[email protected].
How to get around
By bike
 | To learn more, see: Cycle tourism in Lombardy. |
What see
Itineraries
- Lombard Po Valley is part of the Route of Mantuan Wines and Flavors, a path of food and wine tourism promotion, about 300 kilometers long and recognized by the Lombardy Region, which winds through province of Mantua on a territory of 41 municipalities, including: Buttonhole, Curtatone, Sabbioneta, Viadana, Mantua, Bagnolo San Vito, San Benedetto Po, Quistello, Gonzaga, San Giacomo delle Segnate, Poggio Rusco, Ostiglia, Goito, Volta Mantovana, Monzambano, Bridges over the Mincio is Cavriana.
- In the lands of the Gonzaga - An itinerary through the centers, large and small, which were the capitals of the Gonzaga cadet branches: principalities, marquisates, duchies which, within the Mantuan state structure, enjoyed real independence, often minted coins and held refined courts that rivaled that of Mantua, embellished their urban centers by equipping them with elegant architecture - churches, squares, palaces, walls, towers - and characteristic urban views such as the typical Gonzaga arcades.
- Morainic hills of Lake Garda - On the first corrugations of the Po plain that becomes a hill, where the great lake basin of the Lake Garda, the route touches towns and cities that were the domain of Gonzaga, Venice, Scaligero, and then became the scene of the bloody battles of the Risorgimento that were the prelude to the unification of Italy. To the tourist, historical and naturalistic importance the area combines an oenological interest as an area of production of wines from the hills, tokai, merlot and claret.
What to do
At the table
Safety
In Lombardy apartment thefts are frequent, but it is still a safe region and the police perform a good control service. Milan clearly it is at risk for pickpockets to the detriment of tourists and there are some districts that are not very safe, such as Barona or Quarto Oggiaro.
