Music is everywhere in Cremona. Walk through the cobbled streets of its old town and you are never too far from a reminder of how much it means to the city.

A violin in the window here, a studio where instruments are handcrafted there. Walk across the main square and the concert hall almost sneaks up on you.

Cremona’s most famous son, Antonio Stradivari, is regarded as the greatest luthier of all time, his violins so unique that each is identified by its own name. 

Priceless masterpieces, or rather extremely expensive masterpieces, as they cost millions. Each.

One can only wonder what Stradivari would have made of the city reverberating to the tune of Freed from Desire on a Saturday night.

“Jamie Vardy is on fire, your defence is terrified,” roared a group of Cremonese fans outside one of the bars in the old town, the window covered in stickers guaranteed to elicit an approving nod from the football culture purists.

The same song rang around the Stadio Zini on Sunday, with Vardy, who had a slight muscle strain, watching from the stands as his new team were held to a 0-0 draw by Parma on a scorching afternoon.

If Stradivari is Cremona’s biggest export, Vardy became its most famous import the moment he signed as a free agent on deadline day.

“Vardy has put Cremona and Cremonese on the map,” says supporter Filippo, who through his company has been heavily involved in the design of the away kit for the past three seasons. Handing over a pint, he tells Destination Calcio: “We would never have dreamt of signing a player like him. It’s just incredible.”

Can the arrival of a 38-year-old striker really move the dial for a city? More pertinently, can a player in the winter of his career raise Cremonese’s status?

The Grigiorossi, after all, are not exactly calcio pariahs.

Antonio Cabrini, a World Cup winner in 1982, and the late Gianluca Vialli both began their career with their hometown club, the latter scoring 25 goals in 113 matches.

“Vardy can have the same impact for Cremonese that Vialli had on the Premier League,” Filippo says. “When Vialli moved to England, Serie A was at its peak and he helped raise the Premier League’s profile. Vardy can do the same for us.”

Vardy has already been introduced to Cremona’s cultural status, with Cremonese renaming him “Stradi-Vardy” when they announced his arrival.

His unveiling at the Violin Museum in Piazza Guglielmo Marconi was equally on brand for a city whose musical heritage stretches beyond the usual boundaries and, inevitably, into football.

Cremonese’s home kit features a pattern of musical notes, while the four vertical stripes on the away kit are a nod to a violin’s strings.

Everything converges into football in Italy at some point and Vardy struck the right note on his first public appearance after joining the club.

“One thing I couldn’t get my head round was, there are violins that are from the 1500s and 1600s and they look brand new,” he said at his unveiling.  “I just couldn’t get my head round it at all.

“And then finding out after that they need playing once a week just to keep the strings all having the same sound […] it’s frightening.”

But then, longevity is at the very essence of Vardy the player. It’s why he’s still going strong at 38.

“Age is just a number,” he said. “I always listen to my legs. I still feel great.”

Vardy’s awareness of his own limits was behind Davide Nicola’s decision to leave him out for the visit of Parma, six days after he made his Serie A debut as a substitute at Verona.

Like Stradivari’s violins, Stradi-Vardy also has to be fine-tuned to perform at his best.  

Sat alongside his family at the Zini, Vardy watched intently as the Grigiorossi laboured to draw in a largely soporific affair that did not live up to the tempestuous nature of the rivalry between the sides.

And while he may have to wait until Udinese are in town on October 20 to make his home bow, the Vardy party is already in full swing in Cremona.

Cremonese have sold a shade north of 8,200 season tickets, a remarkable figure for a city of just 70,000 people.

The home kit is sold out across the city and can only be purchased online but without a delivery date. The more resourceful have resorted to wearing Leicester kits only to have Vardy’s name on the back of their shirts.

The fact Cremonese hit the ground running even before his arrival only served to generate more enthusiasm.

La Cremo stunned AC Milan at the San Siro in the opening game of the campaign and followed it up by beating fellow Serie A newcomers Sassuolo at home.

The draw against Parma left them sixth in the table with eight points after four games. It is a remarkable start for a newly-promoted side, even more so when considering Nicola has been in charge for just three months.

Survival is the target for Cremonese this season after promotion in 2022 was followed by a swift relegation.

“Staying in Serie A would be a huge success for us,” Filippo’s friend Luca explains. “We need to survive to build on the excitement generated by Vardy’s arrival. It’s absolutely crucial for the club and for the city as a whole.”

Over the past 10 years, at least one of the three newly-promoted teams has gone straight back down and two of the newcomers have been relegated five times in the past decade.

Defying the odds has long been second nature for Vardy, who rose from non-league to Premier League champion and England international.

“He’s an underdog and this city loves an underdog,” says Filippo, as he points out stickers in which the badges of Atalanta and Piacenza, both local rivals, have been crossed off.

Another, in Cremonese colours, reads rather ominously “Solo guai”, Italian for “only trouble”.

Vardy’s arrival so far has been nothing but good news for the city.

“It’s been great,” Riccardo, who runs the bar, which also happens to be a favourite watering hole of Cremonese ultras, says. “His arrival has generated so much interest that even people who normally don’t really follow football are out on matchday. There is a buzz about the place now.”

At this point, it is probably time to acknowledge the dichotomy that exists between Cremona and Vardy. 

The Englishman is more electric guitar than violin, more Spotify playlist than classical concert at the auditorium.

Even his taste for a vodka and Red Bull is strikingly incongruous in a town where most bars were filled with impeccably dressed locals sipping wine on Saturday night.

But Vardy has already been adopted by them. To them, he’s already just Jamie. Already a cult hero.

And as he walked through the old town on Sunday morning with his kids decked in Cremonese colours, he looked perfectly at ease in his new surroundings, a modern-day James Richardson.

Can he turn into Cremonese’s greatest soloist?

Vardy has lost nothing of his sense for a goal, rattling in nine in 35 Premier League appearances last term.

He may never have played outside England until this season, but his career has been shaped by two Italian managers in Claudio Ranieri and Enzo Maresca.

Ranieri, of course, was in charge of Leicester for their Premier League triumph, while Vardy scored 18 goals in 35 Championship games as the Foxes romped to promotion under Maresca two years ago.

“Serie A is perhaps a little more tactical and there is more of a desire to have possession. But I was coached by Enzo and he knows that type of game well. Many people have said that Italian style does not suit me, but you are never too old to learn,” said Vardy.

“I will learn Italian, but [for now] it is not a problem: football has its own language, with the ball.”

Football does indeed have its own language. Just like music.

Vardy, you suspect, could soon have the city on strings.