by Jason Wilson

Cremona is a small, pretty, well-kept, bourgeois, mercantile city in the fertile Po Valley of Italy. There is no local wine region. There is no city university. There are no grandiose must-see sights. The chef Mario Batali once wrote that Cremona is "famous for its quiet, pious belief in commerce and order."

It's also famous for something a bit more appealing: music. As I've traveled around Italy over the last 25 years speaking grammatically challenged Italian, I'm often asked where I learned the language. When I answer Cremona, where I was a 19-year-old exchange student, the confused, incredulous response is generally: "Cremona? Why Cremona? Of all the cities in Italy?"

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