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Day trips by car / Bologna and its province

Full day Art Music UNESCO Towns

Cremona and Sabbioneta: violins and the ideal city

The Torrazzo, the Cathedral and the Violin Museum in Cremona in the morning, the Gonzaga ideal city of Sabbioneta in the afternoon.

Two cities on the Po, side by side. In the morning Cremona, the capital of the violin: Amati, Guarneri and Antonio Stradivari worked here, and its violin-making tradition has been UNESCO Intangible Heritage since 2012. You'll see the square with the Torrazzo and the Cathedral, and the Violin Museum. After lunch Sabbioneta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Mantua since 2008: a small city built from scratch in the sixteenth century by Vespasiano Gonzaga, as the perfect Renaissance city.

Il Torrazzo e il Duomo di Cremona
Photo: sedoglia, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
  • Length from Cervia e Milano Marittima11 h 15 Full day
  • Driving6 h 10 · 507 km there and back
  • Visits and stops4 h 05
  • When to goAll year round (the Violin Museum is closed on Mondays)

The plan from Cervia e Milano Marittima

  1. Leave Cervia e Milano Marittima for Cremona2 h 45 driving, 254 km
  2. Cremona2 h 15 of visits: The Violin Museum, Piazza del Comune, the Torrazzo and the Cathedral
  3. Lunch in Cremona1 h 00 of visits: in the centre: marubini in broth, boiled meat with Cremona mustard, torrone to finish.
  4. Drive on to Sabbioneta50 min driving, 48 km
  5. Sabbioneta1 h 50 of visits: The Teatro all'Antica and the Palazzo Giardino, The Palazzo Ducale and the church of the Incoronata
  6. Drive back to Cervia e Milano Marittima2 h 35 driving, 205 km
  7. Back in Cervia e Milano Marittima

Times are a guide: driving times are worked out without traffic, then come the visits and ten minutes at every stop to park. In summer towards the coast and at rush hour allow extra time.

What you will see

1Cremona

The Violin Museum 60 min

It tells the story of five centuries of Cremona violin-making, from the first violins by Andrea Amati in the sixteenth century to the masterpieces of Antonio Stradivari, who died in 1737, and Guarneri del Gesù. You'll see the instruments, tools and drawings from Stradivari's workshop. On certain days, in the auditorium, a musician plays one of the historic instruments in the collection, so you can hear their voice.

Admission charge; closed on Mondays. The performances with historic instruments are on certain days: check the calendar.

Piazza del Comune, the Torrazzo and the Cathedral 50 min

The square is one of the finest in Italy. The Torrazzo, the Cathedral's bell tower, is 112 metres high and one of the tallest brick towers in Europe; halfway up there's a large sixteenth-century astronomical clock, and from the top you can see the whole Po plain. The Romanesque Cathedral has a white marble façade and is entirely frescoed inside, with the stories of Christ by Pordenone. Next to it is the octagonal twelfth-century Baptistery.

The Cathedral is free; climbing the Torrazzo (about 500 steps) and the Baptistery have admission charges.

2Sabbioneta

The Teatro all'Antica and the Palazzo Giardino 50 min

Vespasiano Gonzaga, soldier and man of culture, built Sabbioneta in the second half of the sixteenth century within star-shaped walls. The Teatro all'Antica, by Vincenzo Scamozzi, was completed in 1590 and is one of the first theatres in Europe built as a freestanding building. The Palazzo Giardino was the duke's private residence, with frescoed rooms and the Galleria degli Antichi, a very long corridor where he kept his Roman statues.

A single ticket, from the tourist office, opens the city's monuments at fixed times.

The Palazzo Ducale and the church of the Incoronata 30 min

In Piazza Ducale there's the government palace, with carved wooden ceilings and equestrian statues of the Gonzaga. Not far away is the octagonal church of the Incoronata, where Vespasiano is buried beneath a bronze monument. Walking around you understand the design: straight streets, squares and palaces conceived together, as in a drawing.

Included in the single ticket.

Tips

  • On Mondays the Violin Museum is closed: better choose another trip that day.
  • In Cremona there are many violin-makers' workshops at work: some can be visited by appointment.
  • In mid-November Cremona holds the Torrone Festival, with the centre full of stalls.

The same trip from other towns

How long it takes from each town, the drive back included. Tap a town to see the plan from there.

Ravenna, Faenza and Cervia

Rimini and the Riviera

Forlì and Cesena

Bologna and its province

Comacchio and its beaches

Pesaro and Fano

With your own car

Almost every old town has a limited traffic zone (ZTL) with cameras: park outside and walk in. The fine reaches your home, abroad too. ZTL and car parks town by town

This trip with a driver

Romagna Transfer picks you up at your hotel, drops you in front of every stop and brings you back: no parking, no ZTL, and the wine is yours to enjoy.

Ask Romagna Transfer

More trips in the Bologna and its province area

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