Return to Cremona

Just want to give Cremona a boost. My partner and I traveled up and down the boot a few years back and had a few flex days to use at the end of our tour. We unanimously decided to return to Cremona. We wanted to see if the city in which we had spent our first days in Italy would hold up to the test. After all, we'd seen Milan, Rome, Pisa, Florence, Sienna, Naples, and the Lake Cuomo region. We'd spent a week living near the tiny town of Monzone. Could our first impression, our enjoyment of Cremona, still satisfy after all that? The answer turned out to be, "Yes!" Cremona seems to have it all: the ancient world, the Old World, and the modern. The people we met had the northern sophistication but tempered with the classic relaxed Italian attitude. It has the feel of the big city but retains the flavor of a smaller, more intimate place. Friendly markets where we could buy fresh produce for the non-ristorante days, fine dining when it was time to indulge, places to walk, music and events. And the bells late at night in the old quarter still ring in my memory.