From the Stradivari Festival at Cremona to Forme, the event that launches Bergamo as the European capital of cheese, discover with us the 9 top events for October in Lombardy.

STRADIVARI FESTIVAL 
An extraordinary festival. Until 12 October, it will bring violinists of the calibre of Giuliano Carmignola, Guido Raimonda and Daniel Hope to Cremona, but also famous pianists like Uri Caine, Krystian Zimerman and Ramin Bahrami, who will perform in the Giovanni Arvedi Auditorium. During the event it will also be possible to admire the jewels of Cremonese stringed instrument-making, conserved at the Museo del Violino, which houses the treasures of the “How to be a luthier”, since 2012 part of Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage.
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THE MACCHIAIOLI 
From 4 October to 19 January 2020, Palazzo delle Paure in Lecco hosts an exhibition entirely dedicated to the Macchiaioli, an artistic movement that revolutionised the development of nineteenth-century Italian painting, presenting over 60 works by its leading exponents, from Telemaco Signorini to Giovanni Fattori. For the entire duration of the exhibition there will be educational activities, meetings and free guided tours for children and adults.
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FESTIVAL OF ETHICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Last year over 90 thousand visitors came here. Over 600 photographers from all over the world ran for the World Report Award 2019. From 5 to 27 October, Lodi houses the 10th edition of the Festival which wants to shake consciences through photography. Over the years this event has become one of the most important photography festivals in Europe, thanks to the participation of several award-winning authors. Meeting with photographers, book presentations and activities for students will take place during the event.
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WITH A NEW AND EXTRAVAGANT MANNER. GIULIO ROMANO IN MANTUA
From 6 October to 6 January 2020, Giulio Romano, the most talented of Raphael’s students, will be celebrated at the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua with a major exhibition born from a collaboration with the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the aim being to illustrate the artist’s story and his “new way” of making art, particularly in the city of the Gonzagas. Alongside the works from the Louvre, the exhibition will offer a further rich selection of drawings, loaned from the most important Italian and foreign museum collections, from the Albertina in Vienna to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, as well as paintings, prints and majolica.
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MILAN WINE WEEK
In the week from 6 to 13 October, Milan celebrates excellent Italian wines with a rich calendar of master classes, tastings, seminars and aperitifs. The epicentre of the event will be Palazzo Bovara, in Corso Venezia 51, but the event will not stop there: some of the most important districts of the city such as the Isola, Porta Romana, Lambrate, Tortona, Brera, Porta Ticinese and others still will turn into real wine districts with bars, restaurants and affiliated clubs hosting some of the events organised during the week.
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AUTUMN FAI DAYS
Two days, 12 and 13 October, to discover more than 100 beauties thanks to the FAI, the Fondo Ambiente Italiano, or ‘Italy’s National Trust’, the aim being to showcase thelesser-known ones hidden among all twelve provinces of Lombardy. Themed itineraries,special openings, guided tours of monuments, villas and churches are planned. For example, in the province of Como an itinerary introduce you to the magic of flight: in Alzate Brianza you can get in touch with the gliders, and in Villa Guardia you can visit the base of rescue helicopters. Lastly, in Como you can visit the Aeroclub - an hangar defined as "the most ancient fly organization with seaplanes and water-flight school", by Guiness World Record, with a precious collection of historical aircrafts - and the Museum of air-raid shelters used by Red Cross during Second World War.
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HOKUSAI, HIROSHIGE, UTAMARO. MASTERPIECES OF JAPANESE ART
On 12 October “Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro. Masterpieces of Japanese art” will be inaugurated at the Scuderie of the Visconti Castle of Pavia: 150 ukiyo-e prints that greatly influenced European art of the late nineteenth century. Open until 9 February, the exhibition will compare the “images of the floating world” by the three Japanese artists with works by Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gaugain and others. Not since 1991 have these prints been exhibited in an exhibition of this magnitude.
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FESTIVAL OF MOSTARDA
First on 13 October in Mantua and then in Cremona on 19 and 20 October: the colours, fragrance and flavours of mostarda, a typically Lombard product whose origins date back to the Middle Ages, will invade the two cities on the occasion of the fifth edition of the festival dedicated to the spicy mix of fruit, sugar and mustard that will be the protagonist of tastings, workshops and cultural events.
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FORME 2019 – ALL THE WORLD OF CHEESE
From 17 to 20 October Bergamo becomes the European capital of cheese with “Forme”: four days of events dedicated to arts of the dairy! The flagship event at the Bergamo Fair, with 6,000 square metres of stands set aside for guided tastings, is the “World Cheese Award” (18 October). During the weekend it will be possible to participate in tastings also at Palazzo della Ragione, where the international award also becomes an exhibition celebrating the best cheese of 2019 and a “historic” Italian cheese. In the year of #Leonardo500, this could only be Montébore, chosen by Da Vinci for the wedding of Isabella of Aragon and Gian Galeazzo Sforza.
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