Varese

Varese is rich in castles, many once pertaining to the Borromeo family. The historic center of the city includes the Praetorian Palace and Villa Cagna, a residential complex that also hosts the Civic Music School of Varese.

Cremona

Ancient History
Cremona is first mentioned in history as a settlement of the Cenomani, a Gallic (Celtic) tribe that arrived in the Po valley around 400 BC. However, the name Cremona most likely dates back to earlier settlers and puzzled the ancients, who gave many fanciful interpretations. In 218 BC the Romans established on that spot their first military outpost (a colonia) north of the Po river, and kept the old name. Cremona and nearby Placentia (modern Piacenza, on the south bank of the Po), were founded in the same year, as bases for penetration into what became the Roman Province of Gallia Cisalpina (Cisalpine Gaul).

Como

The hills surrounding the current location of Como have been inhabited, since at least the Bronze Age, by a Celtic tribe known as the Orobii. Remains of settlements are still present on the wood covered hills to the South West of town.

Monza

Prehistory and ancient era

Funerary urns found in the late 19th century show that humans were in the area dating at the least to the Bronze Age, when people would have lived in pile dwelling settlements raised above the rivers and marshes.

During the Roman Empire, Monza was known as Modicia. During the 3rd century BCE, the Romans subdued the Insubres, a Gaul tribe that had crossed the Alps and settled around Mediolanum (now Milan). A Gallo-Celtic tribe, perhaps the Insubres themselves, founded a village on the Lambro. The ruins of a Roman bridge named Ponte d'Arena can be seen near today's Ponte dei Leoni (Lions Bridge).

Milan

Toponymy
The etymology of Milan is uncertain. The Latin name Mediolanum probably comes from the Latin words medio (in the middle) and planus (plain).
However, some scholars believe lanum comes from the Celtic root lan, meaning an enclosure or demarcated territory (source of the Welsh word 'llan', meaning a sanctuary or church) in which Celtic communities used to build shrines. Hence, Mediolanum could signify the central town or sanctuary of a Celtic tribe. Indeed, the name "Mediolanum" is borne by about sixty Gallo-Roman sites in France, e.g. Saintes (Mediolanum Santonum) and Évreux (Mediolanum Aulercorum).
Another theory links the name to the boar sow (the Scrofa semilanuta) an ancient emblem of the city, fancifully accounted for in Andrea Alciato's Emblemata (1584), beneath a woodcut of the first raising of the city walls, where a boar is seen lifted from the excavation, and the etymology of Mediolanum given as "half-wool", explained in Latin and in French.

The foundation of Milan is credited to two Celtic peoples, the Bituriges and the Aedui, having as their emblems a ram and a boar; therefore "The city's symbol is a wool-bearing boar, an animal of double form, here with sharp bristles, there with sleek wool." Alciato credits Ambrose for his account.

Sondrio

Formerly an Ancient Roman military camp, today's Sondrio was founded by the Lombards: in their language Sundrium meant "Exclusive property", referring to the status of free men (arimanni) of the holders of the city and the surrounding land.

Mantua

Mantua was an island settlement which was first established about the year 2000 BC on the banks of River Mincio, which flows from Lake Garda to the Adriatic Sea. In the 6th century BC, Mantua was an Etruscan village which, in the Etruscan tradition, was re-founded by Ocnus.

Brescia

Ancient era

Various myths relate to the founding of Brescia: one assigns it to Hercules while another attributes its foundation as Altilia ("the other Ilium") by a fugitive from the siege of Troy. According to another myth, the founder was the king of the Ligures, Cidnus, who had invaded the Padan Plain in the late Bronze Age. Colle Cidneo (Cidnus's Hill) was named after that version, and it is the site of the medieval castle. This myth seems to have a grain of truth, because recent archaeological excavations have unearthed remains of a settlement dating back to 1,200 BC that scholars presume to have been built and inhabited by Ligures peoples. Others scholars attribute the founding of Brescia to the Etruscans.

The Gallic Cenomani, allies of the Insubres, invaded in the 7th century BC, and used the town as their capital. The city became Roman in 225 BC, when the Cenomani submitted to the Romans. During the Carthaginian Wars, 'Brixia' (as it was called then) was usually allied with the Romans. In 202 BC, it was part of a Celtic confederation against them but, after a secret agreement, changed sides and attacked and destroyed the Insubres by surprise. Subsequently the city and the tribe entered the Roman world peacefully as faithful allies, maintaining a certain administrative freedom. In 89 BC, Brixia was recognized as civitas ("city") and in 41 BC, its inhabitants received Roman citizenship. Augustus founded a civil (not military) colony there in 27 BC, and he and Tiberius constructed an aqueduct to supply it. Roman Brixia had at least three temples, an aqueduct, a theatre, a forum with another temple built under Vespasianus, and some baths.

When Constantine advanced against Maxentius in 312, an engagement took place at Brixia in which the enemy was forced to retreat as far as Verona. In 402, the city was ravaged by the Visigoths of Alaric I. During the 452 invasion of the Huns under Attila, the city was besieged and sacked. Forty years later, it was one of the first conquests by the Gothic general Theoderic the Great in his war against Odoacer.

Middle Ages

In 568 (or 569), Brescia was taken from the Byzantines by the Lombards, who made it the capital of one of their semi-independent duchies. The first duke was Alachis, who died in 573. Later dukes included the future kings Rotharis and Rodoald, and Alachis II, a fervent anti-Catholic who was killed in the battle of Cornate d'Adda (688). The last king of the Lombards, Desiderius, had also been duke of Brescia.

In 774, Charlemagne captured the city and ended the existence of the Lombard kingdom in northern Italy. Notingus was the first (prince-)bishop (in 844) who bore the title of count (see Bishopric of Brescia). From 855 to 875, under Louis II the Younger, Brescia become de facto capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Later the power of the bishop as imperial representative was gradually opposed by the local citizens and nobles, Brescia becoming a free commune around the early 12th century. Subsequently it expanded into the nearby countryside, first at the expense of the local landholders, and later against the neighbouring communes, notably Bergamo and Cremona. Brescia defeated the latter two times at Pontoglio, then at the Grumore (mid-12th century) and in the battle of the Malamorte (Bad Death) (1192).

During the struggles in 12th and 13th centuries between the Lombard cities and the German emperors, Brescia was implicated in some of the leagues and in all of the uprisings against them. In the Battle of Legnano the contingent from Brescia was the second in size after that of Milan. The Peace of Constance (1183) that ended the war with Frederick Barbarossa confirmed officially the free status of the comune. In 1201 the podestà Rambertino Buvalelli made peace and established a league with Cremona, Bergamo, and Mantua. Memorable also is the siege laid to Brescia by the Emperor Frederick II in 1238 on account of the part taken by this city in the battle of Cortenova (November 27, 1237). Brescia came through this assault victorious. After the fall of the Hohenstaufen, republican institutions declined at Brescia as in the other free cities and the leadership was contested between powerful families, chief among them the Maggi and the Brusati, the latter of the (pro-imperial, anti-papal) Ghibelline party. In 1258 it fell into the hands of Ezzelino da Romano.

In 1311 Emperor Henry VII laid siege to Brescia for six months, losing three-fourths of his army. Later the Scaliger of Verona, aided by the exiled Ghibellines, sought to place Brescia under subjection. The citizens of Brescia then had recourse to John of Luxemburg, but Mastino II della Scala expelled the governor appointed by him. His mastery was soon contested by the Visconti of Milan, but not even their rule was undisputed, as Pandolfo III Malatesta in 1406 took possession of the city. However, in 1416 he bartered it to Filippo Maria Visconti duke of Milan, who in 1426 sold it to the Venetians. The Milanese nobles forced Filippo to resume hostilities against the Venetians, and thus to attempt the recovery of Brescia, but he was defeated in the battle of Maclodio (1427), near Brescia, by general Carmagnola, commander of the Venetian mercenary army. In 1439 Brescia was once more besieged by Francesco Sforza, captain of the Venetians, who defeated Niccolò Piccinino, Filippo's condottiero. Thenceforward Brescia and the province were a Venetian possession, disrupted by a painful incident of French conquest in 1512.

Modern era

Brescia has had a major role in the history of the violin. Many archive documents very clearly testify that from 1490 to 1640 Brescia was the cradle of a magnificent school of string players and makers, all styled "maestro", of all the different kinds of stringed instruments of the Renaissance: viola da gamba (viols), violone, lyra, lyrone, violetta and viola da brazzo. So you can find from 1495 "maestro delle viole" or "maestro delle lire" and later, at least from 1558, "maestro di far violini" that is master of violin making. From 1530 the word violin appeared in Brescian documents and spread in later decades throughout north of Italy, reaching Venezia and Cremona.

Early in the 16th century Brescia was one of the wealthiest cities of Lombardy, but it never recovered from its sack by the French in 1512.

The Sack of Brescia took place on February 18, 1512 during the War of the League of Cambrai. The city of Brescia had revolted against French control, garrisoning itself with Venetian troops. Gaston de Foix, recently arrived to command the French armies in Italy, ordered the city to surrender; when it refused, he attacked it with around 12,000 men. The French attack took place in a pouring rain, through a field of mud; Foix ordered his men to remove their shoes for better traction. The defenders inflicted heavy casualties on the French, but were eventually overrun, suffering 8,000 – 15,000 casualties. The Gascon infantry and landsknechts then proceeded to thoroughly sack the city, massacring thousands of civilians over the next five days. Following this, the city of Bergamo paid some 60,000 ducats to the French to avoid a similar fate.

The French occupied Brescia until 1520, when Venetian rule resumed. Thereafter, Brescia shared the fortunes of the Venetian republic until the latter fell at the hands of French general Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 1769, the city was devastated when the Bastion of San Nazaro was struck by lightning. The resulting fire ignited 90,000 kg (198,416 lb) of gunpowder stored there, causing a massive explosion which destroyed one-sixth of the Brescia and killed 3,000 people.

In Napoleonic times, Brescia was part of the various revolutionary republics and then of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy after Napoleon became Emperor of the French.

After the end of the Napoleonic era in 1815, Brescia was annexed to the Austrian puppet state known as the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. Brescia revolted in 1848; then again in March 1849, when the Piedmontese army invaded Austrian-controlled Lombardy, the people in Brescia overthrew the hated local Austrian administration, and the Austrian military contingent, led by general Haynau, retreated to the Castle. When the larger military operations turned against the Piedmontese, forcing them to retreat, Brescia was left to its own resources. Still, the citizens managed to resist recapture by the Austrian army for ten days of bloody and obstinate street fighting that are now celebrated as the Ten Days of Brescia. This prompted poet Giosuè Carducci to nickname Brescia "Leonessa d'Italia" ("Italian Lioness"), since it was the only Lombard town to rally to King Charles Albert of Piedmont (and to the cause of Italian Unity) in that year.

In 1859, the citizens of Brescia voted overwhelmingly in favor of its inclusion in the newly founded Kingdom of Italy.

The city was awarded a Gold Medal for its resistance against Fascism in World War II.

On May 28, 1974, it was the seat of the bloody Piazza della Loggia bombing.

Lodi

Lodi was a Celtic village; in Roman times it was called in Latin Laus Pompeia (probably in honour of the consul Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo) and was known also because its position allowed many Gauls of Gallia Cisalpina to obtain Roman citizenship. It was in an important position where a vital Roman road crossed the River Adda.

Lecco

Archaeological finds demonstrate the presence of Celtic settlement in the area before the arrival of the Romans. The latter built a castrum here and made it an important road hub. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Lombards captured the town in the 6th century; they were followed by the Franks, who made Lecco the seat of a countship and, later, of a frontier Mark.

Bergamo

Bergamo occupies the site of the ancient town of Bergomum, founded as a settlement of the Celtic tribe of Cenomani. In 49 BC it became a Roman municipality, containing c. 10,000 inhabitants at its peak. An important hub on the military road between Friuli and Raetia, it was destroyed by Attila in the 5th century.

Bergamo in the year 1450
From the 6th century Bergamo was the seat of one of the most important Lombard duchies of northern Italy, together with Brescia, Trento, and Cividale del Friuli: its first Lombard duke was Wallaris. After the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by Charlemagne, it became the seat of a county under one Auteramus (d. 816). An important Lombardic hoard dating from the 6th to 7th centuries AD was found in the vicinity of the city in the nineteenth century and is now in the British Museum.

From the 11th century onwards, Bergamo was an independent commune, taking part in the Lombard League which defeated Frederick I Barbarossa in 1165. The local Guelph and Ghibelline factions were the Colleoni and Suardi, respectively. Feuding between the two initially caused the family of Omodeo Tasso to flee north c. 1250, but he returned to Bergamo in the later 13th century to organize the city's couriers: this would eventually lead to the Imperial Thurn und Taxis dynasty generally credited with organizing the first modern postal service. From 1264, Bergamo was intermittently under the rule of Milan. In 1331, it gave itself to John of Bohemia, but the Milanese Visconti reconquered it.

Early modern
After a short conquest by the Malatesta in 1407, in 1428 it fell under the control of the Venetian Republic, remaining part of it until 1797. Between 1797 and 1815, Bergamo and its territory were included in the political entities born in North Italy during the French and Napoleonic dominion. Notably, the Venetians fortified the higher portion of the town (see Main sights section).

Late modern and contemporary
In 1815, it was assigned to the Austrian Empire. Giuseppe Garibaldi freed it in 1859 during the Second Italian War of Independence, when Bergamo became part of the Kingdom of Italy. For its contribution to "Il Risorgimento" the city is also known as "Città dei Mille" ("City of the Thousand"). During the 20th century Bergamo became one of Italy's most industrialized cities. It is also one of the few Italian cities that did not suffer major destruction during World War II.

Pavia

Dating back to pre-Roman times, the town of Pavia, then known as Ticinum, was a municipality and an important military site (a castrum) under the Roman Empire. It was said by Pliny the Elder to have been founded by the Laevi and Marici, two Ligurian tribes, while Ptolemy attributes it to the Insubres. The Roman city most likely began as a small military camp, built by the consul Publius Cornelius Scipio in 218 BC to guard a wooden bridge he had built over the river Ticinum, on his way to search for Hannibal, who was rumoured to have managed to lead an army over the Alps and into Italy.

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. A sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about a fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in the region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe.
It is also the region with the most Unesco World Heritage Sites in the world.

Ludwig Wilding

Witness of the epochal transition from the industrial society to the information one, Ludwig Wilding [Grünstadt, 1927 – Buchholz in der Nordheide, 2010] started producing his Programmierte Strukturbilder at the beginning of the sixties, thus developing a logical-sensorial art based on virtual motion. Ambiguity, indefiniteness and instability were the distinctive characteristics of the researches of that instant of the century; artists as Ludwig Wilding particularly went deep into the debate about apparent movement and stereoscopic vision (made possible by our binocular system which registers two different images and combine them into one, producing the experience of a third dimension).

In this way Wilding's works should be considered as a natural evolution of the traditional relationship between background and foreground. Binocular vision allows, in fact, to achieve the sense of depth thanks to the union of the different images generated in our right and left eyes. During the sixties Wilding managed to develop interference in the form of lines overlapping in the space. The lines were organized in two levels, separate but complementary: the fore part of the work and its background, which end up combined together in the retina. Practically the perceptive synthesis of the frontal level and of the one behind could generate an apparent movement.

Despite the fact that “seeing is knowledge” sometimes senses can deceive us, stimulating illusions or even hallucinations. Wilding's granular elaborations specifically act on optical illusion, proving the fact that art is a wonderful trick. The perceptive oscillation of these works is created by interspaced lines, orthogonal weaves, concave/convex surfaces, transparencies and retreats that analyse the inter-dependence between the artist/researcher and the spectator/receiver, as well as that between the perceiving subject and the perceived object. Because of this relationship, the work does not exist until it's seen; vice verse it stops existing when no more directly perceived.

Moreover it is necessary to have a direct experience of these works because the only way to really appreciate them is alive. It is impossible to understand the immediate passage from a “still form” to a “moving form”, which is the moment when the work of art assume a life of its own, activated by the spectator and induced to mutation by the variation of his own vision.

Considering that kinetic-visual investigations can be divided into two different categories, those concerning deduction and those recurring to induction, the structural gradients of Ludwig Wilding, without doubts, belong to the second case: they are intellectual provocations that act on our retina's photo-receptors.

Art exhibition  at Lissone Museum of Contemporary Art

Brescia Travel Guide

The news about the origins of Brescia are lost in the night of the times, trepassing in the legend: the theories about the identity of the founder are manifolds (Ercole, Troe or Tiras or Cidno, king of Ligurian, from whom the name of the hill Cidneo, at the doors of the town) while the origins of the name of the town Brixia are to seek in the domination of Galli Cenomani. In 49 B.C. it is roman town at all effects and lives some centuries of splendour, until at the ruin of the Roman Empire; followed the barbaric invasions, last of which that of the longobards that was established in the north Italy and made of Brescia one of their most important dukedoms. Their government was not wretched, but the strained terms with the Curch disembogued into war and king Desiderio tried an alliance with the frank, but, for all answer, Carlo Magno at stand of the papal troops besieged in 773 Pavia and Verona, forcing king Desiderio at the exile. The domination of the Frank lasted until at 888.
With the fall of the Holy Roman Empire begins for Brescia a difficult period, at the centre of the disputes between the Duke of Spoleto and the Marquis of Friuli. In 1090 is born the Common of Brescia, guelph, between the ghibelline commons and afterwards in continuous guerilla. The invasion of Federico I was the cause for which the commons decided for a truce and allied themselves, unfortunately without result. In fact, afterwards of the defeat of Milan, the other commons, between whose Brescia, made a promise of obedience, undergoing at terms of surrender that included the demolition of the wall and of the towers. Was in 1167 that, with an secret alliance, Brescia, Bergamo, Mantova, Cremona and Milan gave life at the battle of Legnano from that Federico Barbarossa came out defeated. After only ten years however Brescia should face Federico II and after 66 days of bloody siege the Emperor was surrendered. The successive decades were a continuous alternation of seizures of power from different rules until at the invasion of Arrigo VII in 1311. For Brescia was still years of internal battles and of passages of hand between that terrible is metioned the siege of Niccolò Piccinino, that reduced Brescia at the hunger, exhausted from the plague and almost entirely destroyed, but done not win, thanks also at the help of Venice.
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The Cathedral of Cremona

The Cathedral of Cremona, the main sacred building of the town, is the outcome of the religiousness and faith of several generations having identified itself and represented the town and its social community in it; as a proof of this the façade of the Cathedral is used as a symbol of the town in the 13th century town seals, while during the Middle Age this symbolic function was usually attributed either to the image of the patron saint or to the façade of the Town Hall. For the Cathedral of Cremona and for its thousand and more craftsmen, from the famous artist to the unknown mason or stone-cutter, the following sentence by the great scholar Giulio Carlo Argan holds good: "a Romanesque cathedral, with its pictorial and plastic display, is rarely the work of only one generation, and it is never the expression of a single creative personality. It is instead the creative and choral expression of a society that does not want to define itself only in the present, but also in the past preceding it and in the future preparing it. The generation inheriting the monument, being this completed or not, venerates in this monument their fathers' work and wants to hand it down to their sons together with their mark".
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