Lay of the Land
The Lombardy region has been home to civilization since at least the second millennium B.C., and, seemingly since its creation, has been a much-fought-over part of what we know today as Western Europe. Its people fell under control of the Roman Empire as a province in 194 B.C., when the Romans brought the first major systems of transportation, agriculture, and trade to the region. They considered Lombardy so important geographically that for a time Milan was used as the capital of the Roman Empire. The name Lombardy, though, would actually come after the empire's fall, when a Germanic tribe known as Lombards invaded in the 570s. Charlemagne annexed the land in the late 700s for his Frankish Empire, and the Lombards didn't regain their independence until the 1100s, when they formed the Lombard Leagues in a revolt against the Roman Empire's Frederick I. France and Austria waged war over Lombardy in the early 1500s, and some of the territory was at times controlled by the Republic of Venice. Napoleon took control in the late 1700s, the Austrians got Lombardy back in the early 1800s, and then finally, in 1859, Lombardy as we know it today became part of the Kingdom of Italy.
Today, Lombardy is a major center of commerce, with its local economy making up as much as 20 percent of Italy's entire gross domestic product. Companies with headquarters and operations in Lombardy operate in the fields of machinery, textiles, wood, rubber, petrochemicals, weaponry, silk, lace, agriculture, and fashion. About 1.3 million people live in Milan alone, making it by far the region's largest urban area.
Fact
Philosopher and author Pliny the Elder, who died in the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius, was from Lombardy. He wrote “Naturalis Historia,” a thirty-seven-book series that would become the model for modern encyclopedias. It included entries about everything from cane sugar to gold mining to artwork.
Malpensa International Airport in Milan is where you want to land if you are flying directly to Lombardy instead of coming from Rome, Venice, or another major Italian city. The airport, which is second only to Rome's in terms of international traffic, handles nearly 24 million passengers a year. Airlines with direct service to the Milan airport from the United States include Alitalia, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and US Air-ways. The English version of the airport's official website is
From Malpensa airport, you can catch trains, buses, and taxis, or grab a rental car to explore the Lombardy region. It's about a forty-minute train ride from the airport to the Milan Cadorna railway station, where you can pick up the Milan subway system. The bus ride to Milan Central Station, where you can catch long-haul Trenitalia trains, is about an hour without traffic. If you plan to tour Milan only, you can get by with public transportation and taxis instead of a rental car.
Essential
No matter what method of transportation gets you to the Lombardy region, make one of your first stops a snack vendor selling gorgonzola cheese. It is said to have originated in the town of Gorgonzola, near Milan. In this part of the world, you can sometimes even find slices of pizza with gorgonzola cheese as a topping.
