The Tourist Guides Association of Cremona Arteturismo offers theme itineraries to discover the treasures of the town and its territory. Famous all over the world especially for the violins of its great violinmakers, Cremona offers much more to be discovered walking through its ancient streets. The town is proposed as an attractive alternative for tourism "to measure of man” experiencing the many aspects of its rich historical, cultural, instrument making, musical and gastronomic traditions.
Let us guide you to discover the town of Cremona with its great medieval Piazza del Comune crowned by Torrazzo, Cathedral, Baptistery, the Loggia of the Soldiers and the Town Hall; the Renaissance Cremona with its imposing and elegant palaces; Cremona - town of music- with the Ponchielli Theatre and the collection of stringed instruments made by the great masters of the past such as Amati, Guarneri and Antonio Stradivari; Cremona with its rich culinary tradition with the torrone, mostarda and marubini. The territory of the province keeps aside some pleasant surprises: Soncino with its fortress and the home of the printers, Pandino with its castle, Crema with the monumental complex of Piazza del Duomo, Pizzighettone with its ancient town walls, Castelleone with its sanctuaries.
Cremona was founded by the Romans in 218 BC on the left bank of the river Po in a zone between the territory of the Insubres and that of Cenomani. The Roman town was located on two important roads: the Via Postumia and the Via del Sale and for this reason enjoyed a certain wealth, of which no trace remains because it was razed to the ground by the Longobards in 603 AD. Another period of prosperity was the Communal Age, in particular, when Cremona was an ally of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and later of his grandson Frederick II. In 1334 it fell under the dominion of the Visconti and from then on it followed the fortunes of the Duchy of Milan. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the Spanish rule, which was followed by that of Austria, only interrupted by the Napoleonic period. Cremona, with the rest of Lombardy, was annexed to the Kingdom of Savoy in 1859 at the end of the Second War of Independence.
