10 Things to Do and See in Cremona

Cremona is also known as the city of 3 T's: there is no doubt about the first two: Torrazzo, one of the tallest bell towers in the world and a symbol of the city; and Torrone, which was born here 500 years ago and has since become famous worldwide.

The third T has different interpretations: some say it's Tognazzi, the great actor (and great cook) born in Cremona, while others claim it represents the initial of T..tte, of which the women of Cremona would be worthy representatives around the globe.

Beyond stereotypes, Cremona has several sights to see that go beyond those indicated by the 3 (or 4) T's.

The Torrazzo certainly deserves a visit, as from the top of the tower you can discover all the beauties of Cremona, with views stretching from the rooftops to beyond the Po River. Your visit to this Lombard city could start by facing its 502 steps and 112 meters, then continuing to the nearby Cathedral, the Baptistery, and the City Hall.

There are various opportunities to take a break: one is certainly a lunch featuring the hearty, flavorful, and genuine cuisine that takes the best of Lombardy and Emilia.

The second is a visit to the historic luthiers who have been making the best violins in the world for 500 years. The third involves historic pastry shops that produce torrone, including the famous Sperlari and Vergari. If you still have the energy and time, around Cremona, there are many other wonderful villages and artistic cities.

On this page, we invite you to discover the 10 things to do and see absolutely in Cremona during a weekend or vacation.

1

In Italy, competition among piazzas is truly high: there are many beautiful ones in small and large cities. Therefore, when we say that Piazza del Comune (or Cathedral Square) in Cremona is one of the most beautiful in Italy, we are making an important statement, but we are sure we are right.

You are immediately struck by the contrast between the red bricks and the white marble of the Cathedral and the Baptistery. Along the perimeter, you will find Cremona Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Torrazzo, the symbol of the city, the Loggia dei Militi, and the City Hall.

Civil and religious power, for centuries, concentrated in this place: sometimes complicit, sometimes enemies. The Cathedral (point 2) is one of the most beautiful Romanesque buildings in Northern Italy, with an extraordinary cycle of frescoes that has earned it the title of "Sistine Chapel of the Po Valley."

Next to the Cathedral is the Torrazzo (point 3), the symbol of Cremona and the tallest stone tower in Italy. The third religious building in the square is the Baptistery (point 2). The City Hall and the Loggia dei Militi (point 4) are two civil architectural buildings that have adorned the square since the 1200s.

2

The Duomo di Cremona (or Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta) is one of the most beautiful religious buildings in Northern Italy. Built in Romanesque style in 1100, it has undergone continuous renovations, so today you can see Gothic and Baroque elements as well.

The main facade is made of white Carrara marble and red from Verona. It features a large central rose window, a two-story loggia, and a prothyron with statues of Saint Imerius, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Omobono.

At the base of the prothyron columns are two lions frequently photographed by tourists around the square. In the three interior naves, there are several masterpieces of art and goldsmithing: in the northern transept is the Great Altar Cross of 3 meters made from silver and gold taken from the Milanese after the 1213 battle at Castelleone.

The cross is composed of over a thousand pieces, 160 large and small statues, and countless 50 busts of saints. Under the presbytery is a three-nave crypt where the splendid Ark of Saints Marcellinus and Peter (1506) is preserved.

The pulpit is adorned with the remains of the Ark of the Persian Martyrs, which was meant to contain the remains of Saints Mario and Marta and their children Audiface and Abaco, martyred in Rome. The Ark was a Renaissance masterpiece made of Carrara marble, the remains of which are now scattered in museums around the world, including the Louvre.

The Duomo di Cremona has a rich artistic decoration that has earned it the nickname "Sistine Chapel of the Po Valley". In the central nave are works by Boccaccino, Bembo, and Melone that depict stories from the life of Mary and the Passion. The highest artistic expression of the Cathedral is found in the counter-façade: here you will find the Crucifixion, the Deposition, and the Resurrection by Pordenone.

Especially the Deposition, captures attention with the perspective in which Christ appears to slide from the fresco towards the viewer. The Baptistery of Cremona is 34 meters high and 20.50 meters wide. It was built starting in 1167 with an octagonal plan (the eighth day is that of Creation and thus of Baptism) and a dome that, as an innovation, anticipated Brunelleschi's in Florence by two centuries. Inside is a beautiful baptismal font, the statue of the Archangel Gabriel, and three altars.

Opening Hours and Ticket Price for the Cathedral and Baptistery

The Duomo di Cremona and the Baptistery are open every weekday from 8 am to 12 pm and from 3:30 pm to 7 pm. Holidays: from 7:30 am to 12:30 pm and from 3:30 pm to 7 pm. Entrance Fee: €10.00. Single ticket granting access to the Vertical Museum of the Torrazzo, the Baptistery, and the Diocesan Museum.

3

502 tiring steps lead to the top of the Torrazzo, the bell tower of the Duomo di Cremona. Of course, the view from here is magnificent and fully justifies the effort it takes to get there. Furthermore, from the top of the 112 meters reached, you can boast of having climbed the tallest masonry tower in the world.

The Torrazzo is the symbol of Cremona and dominates the square, overlooking the other monuments from above. In reality, it consists of towers from different eras that have been superimposed.

On the fourth floor is embedded an 8.5-meter astronomical clock, two meters taller than the famous Big Ben in London.

The clock represents the celestial sphere and allows you to follow many astronomical phenomena: solar and lunar phases, it can indicate the movement of the stars, lunar phases, eclipses, solstices, and equinoxes.

In the bell tower, there are 6 bells from 1744 that create a concert in A-flat major. The bells are dedicated to saints, including Saint Omobono, the patron saint of Cremona. In the gold sphere at the top of the Torrazzo is preserved a piece of Jesus' Cross and other relics.

Opening Hours and Ticket Price for the Torrazzo of Cremona

Opening Hours From 10 am to 12:30 pm and from 2:30 pm to 5:40 pm Closed on Christmas, Easter, August 15. Ticket Price Entrance Fee: €10.00. Single ticket granting access to the Vertical Museum of the Torrazzo, the Baptistery, and the Diocesan Museum.

4

Since 1206, the civil and political power of Cremona has been exercised in this beautiful palace. The red brick facade contrasts, both geographically and visually, with the white and red of the marble of the Cathedral.

The power of the Church and Civil authority have faced each other for over 800 years. The original interior featured a single large hall for political meetings, which was later divided to achieve the current structure: today we have the Violin Room, the Consultation Room, and the Picture Gallery, where the City Council meets.

The Violin Room housed the first nucleus of the Violin Museum (point 5), which has now moved to Palazzo Affaitati.

In the palace are two major works by Genovesino, one of the most original and lesser-known figures in 17th-century painting in Northern Italy: the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes and the Last Supper, two large canvases that have adorned the palace since 1777, after the church of San Francesco in Cremona was turned into a hospital.

The other civil building in the Square is the Loggia dei Militi, named for its function: it was here that the city's militias gathered. Built at the end of the 1200s, it features a wide portico on the ground floor and only an upper floor illuminated by three ogival windows on the long side and one on the short side. Under the portico stands the symbol of Cremona: Hercules, its mythical founder, holding the city's coat of arms.

Opening Hours and Ticket Price for the City Hall and the Loggia

Opening Hours: Monday - Saturday: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm. Sunday and holidays: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Ticket Price: free

5

Cremona and violins are almost synonymous, and finally, this five-century tradition has found a worthy museum. After being scattered across various city palaces, today at Palazzo dell'Arte is the Violin Museum which allows you to discover up close the violins made by the great Masters: Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri.

But that's not all: the Museum features the workshop of a luthier to discover how a stringed instrument is built and listen to recordings of great concerts.

It's worth spending a few extra euros to sit in the auditorium designed by sound engineer Yasuhisa Toyota. A 460-seat wooden hall, with the stage in the center and the audience around, where every aspect has been designed to achieve extraordinary sound quality.

Listening to a live performance here with a Stradivari from 1727 is an unforgettable experience.

The workshop in the museum is beautiful but a bit "cold" because you can tell it's reconstructed: in the historic center, however, some workshops offer guided tours where you can meet a real luthier who discusses the tradition, shows the tools, and techniques of making violins. Prices start at €50 for a 40-minute guided tour.

Opening Hours and Ticket Price for the Violin Museum

Address: Piazza Marconi 5, 200 meters from Piazza del Comune. Opening Hours: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm Saturday, Sunday and holidays: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Closed: January 1, December 25. Ticket Price: €12

6

There is a hidden masterpiece outside the historic center of Cremona that takes just a walk to discover: it is the Monastery of San Giuseppe in San Sigismondo. Don't be deceived by its very simple exterior, typical of a peripheral church.

The interior hides one of the most beautiful pictorial cycles of Lombard Mannerism. It was built in 1662 on the site where 20 years earlier Bianca Visconti and Francesco Sforza married, founding the Sforza dynasty. On that occasion, torrone was also born (see point 9). Instead of a small chapel, this magnificent church was created, decorated mainly by Camillo Boccaccino, the most important Cremonese painter of the time.

The single nave is entirely covered with frescoes: it features Christ in glory with the four evangelists in the apse and on the walls Christ and the adulteress and the Resurrection of Lazarus.

When Boccaccino died, the decorations were entrusted to Bernardino Campi, who created some of the church's best works, such as the Pentecost with the apostles arranged in a circle around the vortex of the Holy Spirit.

Noteworthy are the decorations of the 12 chapels, the altarpieces, the wrought iron and brass grilles, the wooden choir, the organ, and the adjacent monastery that houses Dominican cloistered nuns who enter the church during evening mass to pray and sing hymns. That is the best time to visit the church.

Opening Hours and Ticket Price for the Church of San Sigismondo

Address: The church and the Monastery are located near the Maggiore Hospital of Cremona. They are about 4 km away on foot, or you can take the bus towards the Hospital and Bagnara / Bonemerse. ** Opening Hours:** from 6:45 am to 12 pm and from 3 pm to 6:30 pm. The cloister and the refectory can only be visited on May 1 each year. Ticket Price: free

7

Cremona has a small but wonderful museum that truly deserves a few hours of your visit to the city: it is the Civic Museum "Ala Ponzone" located in Palazzo Affaitati, a noble Cremonese family that is worth a visit in itself.

The museum houses about 2,000 works including paintings, sculptures, and musical instruments. Most people visit it for two works: a St. Francis in meditation by Caravaggio and an Ortolano by Arcimboldo, but don't stop there.

The collection was desired by the Ponzone family and enriched with works from some suppressed Cremonese churches: thus along the route, you can admire works by Boccaccino, Campi, Gatti, and Melone and some large paintings from the former church of San Domenico.

There is also a Music Room with plucked instruments from the Carlo Alberto Carutti collection. Do not miss a visit to the recent room of Platina, with the Cabinet of the Duomo of Cremona made with inlay in the 1500s by Platina.

Opening Hours and Ticket Price for the Civic Museum

Address: Via Ugolani Dati, 4, 600 meters from the Cathedral. Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm. Holidays: 10 am - 5 pm. Closure: Monday (except for Easter Monday), January 1, December 25-26. Ticket Price: full price €7. Reduced €5.

8

In an age when ever-growing shopping centers proliferate, seeking out historic shops should be part of every trip to Italy. Cremona does not disappoint in this regard: several shops have withstood the test of time and remain as they were on the day of their opening. First of all is Sperlari, behind the Torrazzo on Via Solferino.

This small shop overflowing with torrone, chocolate, jams, and mustards is where the story of one of Italy's best-known brands began.

If you want to try another artisan torrone, the right address is Vergari, famous worldwide for traditional Cremonese torrone.

Still on the subject of sweets, just a few steps will take you to Pasticceria Lanfranchi, founded in the late 1800s: it is the only place to taste Pan di Cremona and an infinite number of other delicacies.

Don't miss Pasticceria Duomo, in the square of the same name, and Pasticceria Ebbli on Via Cavallotti, with Liberty furniture from the late 1800s. We are in Cremona, the city of violins, so there are plenty of luthier shops where you can discover how violins or other string instruments are made.

Scattered throughout the historic center, there are about 150 such shops, and many offer guided tours at a cost of about 50 euros per person for a 40-minute visit.

9

Cremona is a land rich in water and plains, where for centuries farms and crops have produced exceptional products, the basis of the cuisine. We are at the border between Lombardy and Emilia and the cuisine embodies the best of both gastronomies.

Let's start with the cured meats, among which stand out the PGI Salami, the garlic salami, and the Cremona vanilla cotechino (where vanilla has nothing to do!). The classic first dish is marubini, tortello cooked in broth made from three types of meat: veal, beef, and chicken with the variant of fresh pot salami. Still among the first courses, the tortelli with pumpkin prevail, which here has that sweet-sour note due to the substantial presence of amaretti. A winter main dish, rich and fatty, is the Gran Bollito Cremonese, where the cuts of meat for the broth become five. With the boiled meats, a famous Cremona mustard, candied fruit with added mustard, accompanies them.

Among the cheeses are the Grana, Provolone, stracchini, and Pannerone. The typical sweet of the Lombard city is Torrone. It seems to have been created to celebrate the marriage between Bianca Visconti and Francesco Sforza in the church of San Sigismondo (1642), and since then it has traveled around the world. It can be eaten at Vergari and Sperlari, two historic shops (see point 8). The torrone is the star of a grand festival in October.

If you are in Cremona during the grape harvest, do not miss a slice of Torta Bertolina made with fragola grapes. Another specialty is the Sbrizulusa, a very close relative of the more famous Sbrisolona from nearby Mantova.

10

If you still have some time to explore, we suggest a few artistic destinations not too far from Cremona: to stay in Lombardy, first of all Mantova, only 1 hour away, as well as Parma for those who want to cross into Emilia.

30 km away is Crema with its magnificent octagonal Basilica of Santa Maria della Croce, and not too far is the village of Soncino, one of the most beautiful in Italy. Here you can visit the Rocca Sforzesca, the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the Silk Museum, and the Printing Museum. Not far away are the village of Pizzighettone with its crooked houses and the colorful church of San Pietro, and the village of Castelponzone with its characteristic yellow and low houses.

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