Lombardy

Lombardia Lombardy
Flag	Coat of arms
Location
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Administration
Country	Italy
NUTS Region	ITC
Capital	Milan
President	Roberto Formigoni (PdL)
Basic statistics
Area	23,861 km² (9,213 sq mi) (Ranked 4th, 7.9 %)
Population	9,642,406 (12/2007) (Ranked 1st, 16.2 %)
- Density	404 /km² (1,047 /sq mi)
Other information
GDP/ Nominal	€ 305.5 billion (2006)
Website	www.regione.lombardia.it

Lombardy is a region in the northern part of Italy. It is the most populated region of the country, and has almost 9.4 million people. The capital is Milan. Lombardy has provinces within it.

In the north of Lombardy there is the country of Switzerland (Canton Ticino e Grigioni), in the west there is the region of Piedmont, in the east the regions of Veneto and Trentino - Alto Adige and in the south the region of Emilia-Romagna.

Name

In the Italian language, Lombardy is called Lombardia. This name comes from an old German word: Langbardland and means "country of the Lombards".

Geography

In the north of Lombardy there are very high mountains, (40% of the territory is mountains) the highest mountains are almost 4.000 meters in the Bernina Range.

In the south of the region flows the Po river, which is the longest river in Italy. The most important rivers are the Adda river, the Mincio and the Ticino river, all of them end in the Po river.

There are also a lot of lakes, the largest are the lake Maggiore, the Lake of Varese, the lake Como, and the lake Garda.

Provinces

Lombardy is divided into 12 provinces:

1. Bergamo
2. Brescia
3. Como
4. Cremona
5. Lecco
6. Lodi
7. Mantova
8. Milano
9. Pavia
10. Sondrio
11. Varese

In the year 2009 there will another province:

• Monza e Brianza

Lombardy together with Milan are candidate for the XXXI Summer Olympic Games

Other websites

• Official Site (IT)