For thousands of years, humans have played music using some version of the ocarina, a rounded wind instrument that produces a flute-like sound. In China, ocarina-like instruments date back to 5,000 BC, and the Maya and the Aztecs used them in religious ceremonies. But the modern ocarina, a sweet potato–shaped instrument with 10 to 12 holes, was invented, by mistake, in the small Italian town of Budrio.

Today, that same town in the Italian region of Emilia Romagna is host to the world’s largest ocarina festival. In 1853, Giuseppe Donati, a 17-year-old boy from Budrio, spent his time messing around with clay. “Donati used to play the clarinet in the town’s band,” says Christian Paolini, a tour guide at Budrio’s Ocarina Museum.