Lombardy

In the sixth century AD the original Lombards (or Longobards, so called because of their long beards), a wild and raucous bunch from the area we now know as West Germany, descended upon Italy They dominated a large area, part of which bears their name today.

Lombardy is so wide and vast and flat that to Italians of other regions is seems endless, with its elegant poplars standing silently in the swirling, blinding, treacherous fog. There are rice fields which reflect the sky like still mirrors, and convents and monasteries tucked away in the hills which surround the lovely lakes of Maggiore, Como, Garda, Lugano and Iseo, where the nuns and monks still distil and sell mysterious liqueurs. There are mountains as well as hills, but the slopes are less harsh and steep than in other areas, with wide, soft valleys.