Word: cremona
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...stood placidly waiting for customers behind his refreshment stand near the shores of the Po River. Suddenly, as a curvy blonde entered the water for a dip, Francesco, 25, was swept away by love. Her name was Angela Mondini; she was only 16, and, like Francesco, she came from Cremona. Almost immediately, Francesco proposed marriage. Coldly, Angela refused. "He's not my type.'' she told friends. "She's playing hard to get," Francesco replied...
...sunny August day more than 24 years ago, a young man of Cremona named Francesco Ghizzoni fell in love. The girl was a 16-year-old blonde with blue eyes, an infectious laugh, and a good figure. Francesco, who at 25 already owned a small café, a house and some land, made an instant decision: "This girl will be my wife...
...discovered that her name was Angela Mondini and that she too lived in Cremona, across the Po River from his café. Plunging wholeheartedly into the timeless rituals of Lombard courtship, Francesco promenaded beneath her window, cultivated her friends and relatives, encountered her "by chance" when she went strolling. Angela played her part by being good, like a signorina should. When they met, she would say politely, "Buon-giorno, Signor Ghizzoni" and coolly ignore his urgings to "call me Francesco." He asked for a date, and Angela refused. He sent her gifts. Angela returned them...
When Antonio Stradivari died in Cremona, Italy in 1737, he left behind him an estimated 1,100 masterfully constructed stringed instruments, of which perhaps 600 that have any claim to his name exist today. Every violin virtuoso, concertmaster and well-heeled amateur in the world has wanted to own an instrument by the famed Cremona fiddlemaker. The supply, while never plentiful, has surprisingly never been exhausted, and last week the proceedings of a Swiss court pointed to the reason why: buyers of supposed Strads and other instruments with great Cremona labels have been the victims of a traffic in fake...
...responsible for last week's court action is an Italian violin connoisseur named Giovanni Iviglia. Twenty years ago, an exhibition of old-master violins was held in Cremona, and of the 2,000 which Expert Iviglia now says were offered from all parts of the world, only 40 proved to be genuine. Believing that the center of a fake violin trade was Switzerland, Iviglia, with the blessings of the Italian government, set up an "Advisory Bureau for Purchasers and Owners of Italian String Instruments" in Zurich...