Busseto Travel Guide

 Nemorino Says:  This "Sanctuary of the Holy Virgin," Madonna dei Prati, is 2 km north of Roncole and 3 km east of Busseto. It was built in the 1690s for the purpose of preserving a frescoed image of the Virgin which was considered miraculous.Verdi as a boy often walked over here from... 

 Nemorino Says:  Giuseppe Verdi was born just outside of Busetto in a place called Roncole, now called Roncole Verdi in his honor.Since this area was under French rule at the time, he was christened with the French names of Joseph Fortunin François Verdi. His father Carlos Verdi was a tenant... 

 JessieLang Says:  Busseto had an interesting Jewish memorial. A big triangular monument was flanked by a long row of what looked like gravestones—each one had the name of a death camp or the site of a massacre. Jews from this part of Italy died in the places on the stones. 

 JessieLang Says:  Verdi was born in Roncole, a small community near Busseto. Verdi’s mother did the laundry for the landowner at Roncole, and they had a little house on the estate. Verdi was born there, and his house has been maintained. 

 Nemorino Says:  Purely by chance I was in Busseto on an evening when a local chorus, the "Coro Lirico Bresciano Giuseppe Verdi," was giving a free concert at the Teatro Verdi, under the auspices of the cultural association "Amici di Verdi" (Friends of Verdi).There was hardly any advertising... 

 Nemorino Says:  In the right wing of the citadel, next to the tourist information office, is a 300-seat theater known as Teatro Verdi, which was built in the years between 1856 and 1868.The theater was inaugurated on 15 August 1868, in Verdi's absence, with performances of two of his... 

 Nemorino Says:  The main square in the center of Busseto is of course called Piazza Verdi.On the north side of the square is the citadel or "Rocca", which was once the castle of the Pallavicino family. They started building it in the 13th century, but it has been changed many times since... 

 Nemorino Says:  This was Verdi's main residence from the spring of 1851 until the end of his life nearly half a century later. He originally bought a small farm, had a house built on it, and then gradually bought up lots more farmland in the immediate vicinity, so that he had a substantial... 

 Nemorino Says:  There are several towns in Italy called Sant' Agata, but this particular one is a small village on the Ongina stream three kilometers north of Busseto. Administratively, Sant' Agata belongs to the municipality of Villanova sull'Arda in the province of Piacenza.Though Verdi... 

 Nemorino Says:  In 1845, with money he had earned from his operas Nabucco, I Lombardi alla prima crociata, Ernani, I due Foscari and Giovanna d'Arco, Verdi bought this luxurious house on the main street of Busseto, via Roma.He lived here from 1849 to 1851 with the former opera singer... 

 Nemorino Says:  If for some reason you didn't want to go by bicycle, you could also take a train from Cremona to Busseto along this single-track electrified line, which by the way was built during Verdi's lifetime and was carefully planned to avoid crossing any of his land holdings north of... 

 Nemorino Says:   The railroad station in Busseto is located at the western edge of the town at the end of a street called Viale Pallavicino, which is the continuation of the main street Via Roma. Second photo: The departure schedule lists thirty trains per day, going either north to Cremona... 

 Nemorino Says:  Since I traveled to Busseto by bicycle I didn't have to rent one when I was there, but to get information for this tip I asked at the tourist information office at Piazza Giuseppe Verdi, 10 (their door is visible in the arch on the right-hand side of this photo), and they... 

 Nemorino Says:  By chance (or intuition or dumb luck or whatever), I found a very good cycling route from Cremona to Busseto, a distance of seventeen kilometers as the crow flies, but maybe twenty-five or so if you take the car-free route along the dike parallel to the River Po.I have... 

 Nemorino Says:  When I was cycling in from the north, the first thing I saw of Busseto was the top of this tower, which reminded me of the water towers I knew from my childhood in the American Midwest.Actually I'm not sure it really is a water tower, maybe it's some other kind of tower...