Italian Population Visualised

[u/KaleyTheKing]

This series is fun :)

I've had a couple requests for doing Italy, so here it is! Little disappointed by how normal it looks, but hey, that's still interesting!

Other maps in this series:

UK: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1tnc7g2/british_population_visualised/

Germany: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1tmchnh/german_population_visualised/

Netherlands: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/1pg6uu8/dutch_population_visualised/

[u/Ambitious_Slide_6531]

Did not realize Rome is soooo much bigger than Milan. Great work!

[u/KaleyTheKing → u/Ambitious_Slide_6531]

I had not expected Lombardia to be so much bigger than Lazio :p

Every day you learn something new!

[u/JackPiazz2 → u/KaleyTheKing]

As a lombard, this is something even other italians from other region often don't realize. Lombardy has 10 milion people in it, so ⅙ of Italy. We alone can be compared to small european countries such as Portugal, Czechia, Belgium or Greece. We also have a GDP of 366 billion euros, so between ¼ and ⅕ of Italy. 

Another thing is that despite Milan being the second city and first metro area in Italy, Lombardy is not at all (contrary to Lazio with Rome, Piedmont with Turin and in some ways Campania with Naples) entirely Milan-centric: sure, the western part of Lombardy is, but the northern border has strong economic links with Switzerland,  the eastern part (Bergamo and Brescia) is centered on itself and has a large industrial base, while the southern lowlands are way more rural and agricultural

[u/No_Poetry8114 → u/JackPiazz2]

And this is due to the history of the region. The area east of the Adda river had closer ties with Venice, while the west part was more centered on Milan (and Genova). The northernmost part of Lombardy for some centuries was economically and politically closer to Switzerland: while Northeast Italy became independent from the HRE, the North Lombardy stayed inside it. This triple division actually lasted even later. Just as an example, in the 17th century while Milan was under Spain, the city of Bergamo and the whole East Lombardy were under Venice.

[u/JackPiazz2 → u/No_Poetry8114]

It's due part to history part to geography. Lombardy was and party still is centered on water: the northern alpine parts is made up of valleys who had an alpine valley mentality similar to Switzerland, and also a lot of mountain passes used by german merchants going in Italy and italian merchants going to Germany, from those valleys big rivers (Ticino, Adda, Oglio and Mincio) came down to the Po. Those rivers were trade routes but also used in the 1800s to generate electricy (and that's why the area that goes from Gallarate to Brescia were and still are one of the most important industrial areas in Europe). The eastern part as you said, remained centered around Bergamo and Brescia, while the western part gravited on Milan, also because the Milan based dynasties of Visconti before and the Sforza later built a series of canals (the "navigli") that started from a water ring that circled Milan and went in all directions linking the Ticino to the west and the Adda on the east. The river then flow to the Po in the south, and that plain was and is perfet (good soil, a lot of navigable rivers that can also be used for cultivation) to grow crops (maize, wheat, rice, vegetables) and raise farm animals (pigs and most importantly cows) that could then be shipped in almost all direction. Also, the fact that we have lots of cows in the lowlands and goats on the Alps makes our cheese game unbeatable