The Piazza del Comune is the historic civic heart of Cremona and one of the best-preserved medieval squares in northern Italy. The ensemble facing the square includes the Cathedral (and its extraordinary detached baptistery), the Torrazzo bell tower, the 13th-century Loggia dei Militi, the 15th-century Palazzo Cittanova, and the Palazzo Comunale. The effect is of a whole medieval civic world still intact and in use — not a preservation project, but a living city that simply never tore these things down.
The square is pedestrianised and functions as the meeting point of the city. In the evening it fills with locals doing the passeggiata; in the morning there's a market on some days. The combination of Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance elements crowding around the same space, all in a warm terracotta brick, is what sets Cremona's piazza apart from its peers in towns like Mantua or Pavia.