Stradivarius hometown in Italy gets violin museum

The northern Italian town where Antonio Stradivari and other master violin-makers worked will open a new museum celebrating the instrument.

Cremona will inaugurate the Museum of the Violin on Sept. 14. In a recreated violin-maker's shop, visitors can watch how the instruments are hand crafted. They can admire creations of Stradivari and other famous Cremona violin-makers, the Amati and the Guarneri families, with the instruments in protective showcases, and hear violins being played.

Museum director Alessandra Villa told a media preview Thursday the place is a musician's "dream come true."

Violinist Antonio De Lorenzi likened playing a 300-year-old Stradivarius to painting a fresco with a palette of many varied colors the instrument rewards the musician with greater possibilities for sound intensity and musical coloration.