Geography of Lombardy

Po river. These are crossed and dotted by dozens of rivers and lakes, the latter of which include some of the largest in Italy. The territory is the fourth largest in Italy by surface area with 24,000 square kilometres (9,300 sq mi

).

Lombardy's northern border is between the Valtellina and the valleys of the Rhine and the Inn. To the east, Lake Garda and the Mincio separate Lombardy from the other Italian regions, as does the Po in the south with the exception of the Mantuan [it] and Pavese Oltrepò (lit. Beyond the Po). The western boundary is formed by the Lake Maggiore and the Ticino, except the Lomellina.

Landscape

Mountains make up 40 % of Lombardy's area. The

Ligurian Apennines [it

].

The Lombard Alps are all named after the ancient peoples who dwelled in them in the time of the

massifs in the Lombard Alps: the Bregaglia Range, Piz Bernina, Ortles-Cevedale Range [it], and the Adamello Range [it]. The first three of these rise between the Rhine and Inn in the north and the Adda and Oglioto in the south and therefore are only partly in Italy. The Adamello Range on the other hand is located between the Adda and Adige and thus entirely within Italy. The highest elevated locality to be found in Lombardy is the secondary peak of the Piz Bernina, La Spedla, at 4,020 metres (13,190 ft). Another prominent peak is Monte Cevedale

, standing 3,764-metre (12,349 ft) tall. The Forni glacier (12 km² (4.6 sq mi)) is located in the Ortles-Cevedale Range.

To the west of Lake Maggiore and the east of Lake Garda are the Lombard Prealps, whose peaks average at a little over 2,500 metres (8,200 ft). They are made up primarily of calcerous sediments, which allowed glaciers to carve their many valleys and rivers now contained within. These glaciers also made the moraines that form the hilly terrain, making up 12.4% of the region, that connect the Prealps to the plains below.

Mountainous areas

Lepontine Alps (Adula Alps)
Lugano Prealps (Comasche Prealps, Varese Prealps)
Bernina Alps [it], Livigno Alps, Sesvenna Alps
)

Southern Rhaetian Alps (Ortler Alps, Adamello-Presanella Alps)
Bergamasque Alps and Prealps (Bergamasque Alps, Bergamasque Prealps
)

Brescian Prealps [it], Garda Mountains
)

Ligurian Apennines [it
]

Mountains

Alpine passes

Lombardy's alpine valleys are broader and deeper than those found in nearby Piedmont and the Aosta Valley. Because of their size, and in spite of their high altitude, the valleys of Lombardy are very accessible. Traffic through these passes has thus been constant in the region's history, especially commercial traffic.^[1]

The most important of these passes are those that connect Lombardy to Switzerland; the Splügen, Maloja, and the Bernina Passes, the latter two mostly within Swiss borders. Likewise, but intranationally, are the Stelvio and Tonale Passes between Lombardy and the Trentino.^[1]

Citations

^ ^a ^b "Lombardia in Italia". bellezzeditalia.it (in Italian). Retrieved 27 November 2017.

[bellezze-1] "Lombardia in Italia". bellezzeditalia.it (in Italian). Retrieved 27 November 2017.

[1]