cremona is where the violin was developed.
the instrument-maker andrea amati made the first oe in the 1530s, and they soon became popular with the royal courts throughout europe because of their superior tone to the medieval fiddle.
it was antonio stradivari, known as stradivarius (1644-1737), the pupil of andrea amati's granson niccolo', who raised the level of craftmanship to genious.
he used to go walking in the forest of the dolomites in search of the perfect wood for his instruments.
stradivarius produced more then 1100 violins in hs workshop, of which mare than 400 exist to this day and remain unrivalled by modern techniques or equipment.