Lombardy

 (Italian and Lombard: Lombardia; Romansh: Lumbardia) is an administrative region of Italy that covers 23,844 km2 (9,206 sq mi); it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is located between the mountain range and tributaries of the river Po, and includes Milan, its capital, the largest metropolitan area in the country, and among the largest in the European Union.

Quotes

 * ... fruitful Lombardy, The pleasant garden of great Italy,
 * William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, I, i, 3–4


 * In the time of my staying here, I went forth to Lombardy, and visited the famous Cities of Padua, Verona, and . The commendation of which is celebrated in these verses:Extollit Paduam, juris studium, & medicinæ. Verona, humanæ dat singula commoda vitæ. Exhaurit loculos ferrarea ferrea plenos.
 * William Lithgow, Painefull Peregrinations (1640), I, 42


 * But when we crost the Lombard plain Remember what a plague of rain; Of rain at Reggio, rain at Parma; At Lodi, rain, Piacenza, rain.And stern and sad (so rare the smiles Of sunlight) look’d the Lombard piles;  Porch-pillars on the lion resting, And sombre, old, colonnaded aisles.
 * Alfred Tennyson, "The Daisy" (wr. 1853; pub. 1855)