Cremona Comes With Strings Attached
Cremona comes with strings attached
Small city famous for its violin makers
KENNETH BAGNELL, Special to QMI AgencyFirst posted:
One of the best things about Milan — Italy’s fashion capital — is it’s just an hour by train from Cremona. A small city of about 70,000, Cremona is renowned for one thing: The violin, which was created there in the early 1500s and still defines the city.
Today Cremona has about 150 shops, where some violin-makers invite tourists in to visit and watch.
So, using our Eurail Pass — the most pleasant and economical way to get here and there around Europe — we left Milan at 10 a.m., stepping down in Cremona at 11 and settling in at a hotel on the edge of the city’s famed square, where medieval cobblestones still shine.
The Impero is a spotless inn — family owned and managed inn — near Cremona’s enormous medieval cathedral. One thing you’ll notice at the hotel: Many well dressed men checking in and out carry not attache cases but violin cases.
We especially liked the central location only three minutes walk to a restaurant we visited regularly: The family run Albergo Duomo, where pastas are the best, service is prompt, and the pitchers of red wine fragrant.
Everything is within walking distance in Cremona. Our first stop was the tourism office where the efficient Elisabetta Riboni discussed our plan to get an overview of Cremona life and introduced us to Francesca Bottini, an experienced guide.
Naturally, Bottini took us to the places that make Cremona unique in the world. These include the city archives, which houses documents from the 1600s hand-written by violin-makers of the time, a present-day violin-maker’s shop, and locales touched by the greats of the violin-making tradition — Amati, Guarneri and, towering over all, Stradivari, the greatest violin-maker of all. (World famous violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman plays a Stradivari.)
We also dropped in at The Consortium of Violinmakers, both a showroom and administrative centre for most of Cremona’s violin artisans of Cremona. It safeguards Cremona-made violins with a trademark assuring authenticity.
Visitors will see many of the world’s finest string instruments there but I hope they also get a chance to meet the administrator, Daniele Palma. Originally from Puglia, Palma is a professional organist, who was drawn to Cremona several years ago not only because it’s pleasant, but also because it’s so special.
“Cremona,” Palma says with feeling, “is the city of music. We have great theatre; we are going to have a Stradivari museum soon. It’s rich with worthy tradition.”
Bottini also arranged for us to visit violin-maker Philippe Devanneaux, a craftsman for 20 years.
When I asked how many violins he made in a year, he said it depends on demand but, in general, about 12.
The price? From 5,000 euros.
Every visitor to Cremona should also attend the brief daily concert held in the city hall. At noon, a violinist enters quietly and, for a half hour, plays one of Stradivari’s ancient violins, said to be valued at several million dollars.
It’s a moving moment, and one that only happens in Cremona.
CREMONA BASICS
For information on the city, e-mail info.turismo@provincia.cremona.it. For guiding, contact info@acutoweb.net. For details on Eurail passes, visit ACPRail.com.www.ACPRail.com