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Home > Travel Italy > Italy Destinations > Sondrio
Sondrio
Italy, officially the Italian Republic or Repubblica Italiana, is a Southern European country comprising of the Po River valley, the Italian Peninsula and the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. It is shaped like a boot and for this reason Italians commonly call it lo Stivale, the boot or, due to its prevalent peninsular geographical nature, la Penisola, the Peninsula.
Sondrio is a city in the province of Sondrio, in the region Lombardy in Italy. Sondrio town counts some 21,000 inhabitants and is located in the northern part of Lombardy just in the very centre of Valtellina. The area of Sondrio was populated in ancient times by the Ligures and, from the 5th century before Christ, by the Celts. A former Roman military camp, the today's Sondrio was founded by the Lombards.
After the fall of the Lombard Kingdom in Italy, Sondrio became part of the Holy Roman Empire. From the second half of the 16th century to the 18th century Sondrio was governed by the Tre Leghe Grigie of the Grisons, as the capital city of Valtellina. After the reformation, Sondrio was the centre of heavy struggles between the Catholic Valtellinesi and the Protestant Grisons. After the Napoleonic parenthesis, in which it was included in the Cisalpine Republic, Sondrio fought nobly with the Austrian Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia for its independence.
The region of Sondrio is famous for its wine yards, the most famous quality of wines being the Sassella and Grumello. Wine represents one of the main resources of this region, together with tourism, especially in winter. It is a city with endless recreational opportunities, rich history, and modern day luxuries.
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