Cremona's 111m-tall torrazzo (bell tower, although 'torrazzo' translates literally as ‘great, fat tower’) is the third tallest brick bell tower in the world. A total of 502 steps wind up to the top (there's no lift). The effort is more than repaid with marvellous views across the city. In 2018 the tower opened a new 'vertical museum' inside its lean frame dedicated to astronomy, time measurement and clocks, including a Foucault's pendulum exhibit.
The tower took 80 years to build and was completed in 1309. The clock has been tinkered with considerably over the years (the last time in the 1970s) but remains an extraordinary example of European craftsmanship, designed not only to tell the time but to measure the phases of the moon and seasons, and present astrological information.
