Who were the first people to settle in northern Italy?

The first permanent settlements in Northern Italy date to the Neolithic period (around 6,000 BCE) and were established by theLigures, a pre-Indo-European people who inhabited the region from modern Liguria to Provence in France. The Ligures were followed by the Gauls, a Celtic people who migrated from central Europe and settled in the region in the 4th century BCE. The Celts were later assimilated into the Roman Empire and their culture was assimilated into the Roman-Celtic culture.