14 Facts About Northern Italy

Northern Italy is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy.

Northern Italy was called by different terms in different periods of history.

The Roman culture and language overwhelmed the former civilization in the following years, and Northern Italy became one of the most developed and rich areas of the western half of the empire with the construction of a wide array of roads and the development of agriculture and trade.

In late antiquity the strategic role of Northern Italy was emphasized by the moving of the capital of the Western Empire from Rome to Mediolanum in 286 and later to Ravenna from 402 until the empire collapsed in 476.

The rest of Northern Italy was under Austrian rule, either direct like in the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom or indirect like in the Duchies of Parma and Modena.

Related searches

Austrian imperial government was unpopular because of their anti-liberal politics and Northern Italy became the intellectual centre leading the Italian unification process.

Between 1943 and 1945, during the Second World War, Northern Italy was part of the Fascist Italian Social Republic and the main theatre of the anti-fascist partisan activity.

Northern Italy is made of the basin of the River Po, which comprises the whole of the broad plain extending from the foot of the Apennines to that of the Alps, together with the valleys and slopes on both sides of it, the Venetian Plain and the Ligurian coast.

Northern Italy has the Alps as northern and western boundary and the Apennine Mountains as the southern one.

The Po Valley is the largest plain in Northern Italy and held the vast majority of North Italian population.

Climate of Northern Italy is mainly humid subtropical, especially in the plains.

Northern Italy is dominated by the Gallo-Italic family of languages, as opposed to the rest of the country where the Italo-Romance languages are spoken, and they include Emilian, Ligurian, Lombard, Piedmontese, and Romagnol.

Northern Italy is the most developed and productive area of the country, with one of the highest GDPs per capita in Europe.

Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Veneto, Trentino Alto-Adige, Liguria, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and Lombardy are known as the Alpine regions of Northern Italy, consisting of all of North Northern Italy except for Emilia-Romagna.