A Visit to Cremona

On Saturday, October 6th we went to Cremona for the day. It is a city I had never visited and Dom had only been there once about 25 years ago.

It is located in the Po Valley about an hour southeast of Milan by car. It took us about an hour and a half from Capannori. The day was beautiful and we drove through the mountains on the A-15, always a nicer drive than the A-1. It has a lot less traffic and is wilder terrain.

 The GPS took us right to Cremona and we found ourselves parking within sight of the main church--the Duomo with its Torrazzzo (Big Tower). The tower is the third highest brick tower in Europe according to Wikipedia.

The Duomo itself is HUGE. In the above picture you can see one side of it and at the bottom of the picture some of the awnings of the large street market that was in full swing when we arrived.

 We walked around the Duomo until we found what looked like the front of the church.

This doorway looked a little small for a grand Duomo but not unusually small. We went inside to look around.

The inside is incredibly ornate. Unfortunately it is not well lit so some of the details were lost in the shadows. After wandering around a while we figured out that we had entered through one of the transept doors. The church must be one of the largest in Italy inside.

The ornate ceiling was especially beautiful, all blues and golds.

There were dozens of frescoes on the walls along with smaller decorations on every surface. I have rarely seen a church in Italy that was so thoroughly decorated.

Above another huge fresco is a lovely rose window over the main entrance to the church.

More frescoes! The above has a nice Annunciation on the left hand side.

Still more frescoes!

This lovely Madonna and Child with its ornate surround was located in one of the many side chapels.

We finally left the Duomo and found ourselves in the main piazza in town. Above you can see more of the market. There were a lot of flowers and plants available for sale.

To the right of the Duomo was the baptistry. It is a pretty little octagonal building.

Above is the "real" front of the Duomo with the Torrazzo to the left.

The Torrazzo has an interesting clock on one side.

Here is a little of the detail of the towers on top of the Duomo. There must have been a dozen of these towers topped with copper roofs. They reminded me of minarets.

Cremona's street have something of a French flavor with lots of wrought iron balconies. There were lots of interesting shops and a lot of people out enjoying the market and the sunshine.

One of Cremona's claims to fame is that it was, and still is, a world famous center for luthiers (makers of violins and all related instruments such as guitars and mandolins). As a result there are many pictures of violins and you can even buy chocolate violins!

Here is one of the many buildings that look French to me.

We visited the collection of violins and violas that is located in the main Commune (City Hall) building opposite the Duomo. Many of them dated to the 1500s. After that we walked across town to the Pinacoteca (Painting Museum) that also houses the Stradivari Museum. The collection of paintings was very interesting especially the collection that showed Cremona throughout its history. The Stradivari portion of the museum included a collection of the famous violin maker's tools and an interesting explanation of exactly how violins are made. There were more famous violins and some information about the famous musicians who had played them and others who collected them. Did you know Henry Ford played and collected violins?

From the 16th Century to the present Cremona has been know as a center for musical instrument manufacturing, especially violins. It began with the Amati family and the tradition expanded with the Guarneri and Stradivari shops. We saw many shops similar to the Liuteria above.

After visiting the museum we had a nice lunch near the Duomo. We were seated outside and it was fun to watch the market stalls wrapping up business for the day and driving away. By 2:30 or so the streets were nearly deserted. It was just us tourists as the Italians were all having lunch.

Here is a picture of the main piazza all cleaned up. We headed over to a gelateria at the foot of the Torrazzo for a little dessert.

The gelateria was located on the ground floor of this building. I loved the cupola with the roses growing in all the openings. The pink and green was lovely against the soft yellow of the walls and the bright terracotta of the roof tiles.

We had a nice drive home and were back by about 5:30 in the late afternoon. It is really the only excursion we have taken since we arrived. Between me being in school and our painting project (thankfully finished!) we have stayed close to home the last two weeks.

Today we head to Rome to meet my Dad and go to the Canonization Mass at St. Peter's Square on Sunday. That will be the next post!

P.S. I hope there are not too many typos in this post. No time to proofread!