Experience music with your ears and hands: between Pavia and Cremona, from singing to the violin

A different way of travelling, discovering new places and encountering the art of music. All of this can be done through an itinerary that moves along Pavia and Cremona. Starting with Certosa, the magnificent Carthusian monastery founded in 1396, just outside Pavia. Here you will be welcomed by an expert that can take you on a tour to know more about music in monastic life. The tour continues in Oltrepò Pavese, along Via Francigena, where you can see Sant'Alberto di Bustrio abbey, a jewel from the 10th century surrounded by century-old oaks and woods. Not far from here, you can visit Oramala castle, chosen by local noble families in the 10th century to welcome guests, minstrels, and knights. The fortress used to open its doors to wandering minstrels coming from Provençe but also Italy, including the world famous Dante Alighieri.

To relive the atmosphere of those times you can take part in a curious laboratory to discover the origins of European music in poetry and spoken language, and try and sing a song composed by a Provençal minstrel who used to visit the castle in the 12th century. If you don't like singing, you can still accompany the singers with percussions.

Cremona is another house of music. Don't miss the historic centre of the city: through Piazza Stradivari you can reach Corso Vittorio Emanuele with Teatro Ponchielli. Then there is the medieval Piazza del Comune, Torrazzo - the tallest bell tower in cotto bricks in Italy -, the Cattedrale, the octagonal Baptistry, the 13th century Palazzo Comunale with its praiseworthy "sala dei violini" and Loggia dei Militi. The soul of Cremona is however in the luthiers workshops around the city: a master luthier will show you how to extract a flawless musical instrument from a piece of wood. A unique profession, recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage of humankind. Musicians can play the instruments on show or ask for an evaluation of their own instruments at the Consorzio. Upon booking you can also see an audition of one of the instruments preserved in Sala dei Violini now in Palazzo Comunale.