Lombardy is a region that offers something for everyone. Milan is the country's business capital and the center for everything that's up-to-the-minute. The great Renaissance cities of the Po Plain -- Pavia, Cremona, and Mantua -- are stately and serene, embracing their past with nostalgia while at the same time keeping an eye on the present. Topping any list of the region's attractions are the Italian Lakes -- glacial waters stretching out below the Alps -- which have been praised as the closest thing to paradise by writers throughout the ages, from Virgil to Hemingway.
Millions of travelers have concurred: for sheer beauty, the lakes of northern Italy -- Como, Maggiore, Garda, and Orta -- have few equals. Along their shores are 18th- and 19th-century villas, exotic formal gardens, sleepy villages, and dozens of resorts that were once Europe's most fashionable, and still retain a powerful allure.
Photo: Eoghan McNally/Shutterstock
Visit the Travel Talk forums for help on planning your trip >>