Sound Monuments Are Coming to Rome: Here’s Where They Are

The initiative is part of the “Roma Smart Tourism” project which also includes the tourist-cinematographic itineraries of the Capital

ROME – Portico d’Ottavia, Piazza di Pietra, the Fontanone del Gianicolo, Piazza de Andre’, Ponte della Musica and the Casa del Cinema will be the Sound Monuments of Rome. Those who visit them will be able to experience an immersive adventure where not only the sense of sight will be enjoyed but also that of hearing, because they will be able to admire them while listening en plein air, at certain times of the morning and afternoon, also to the music of the great Italian composers. The first sound monument was inaugurated this morning in Portico d’Ottavia by the outgoing Councilor for Culture, Miguel Gotor, together with Michele dall’Ongaro, President-Superintendent of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. The idea actually comes from an intuition of Gianni Paris, Gotor’s chief of staff, who one day was captured by the sweet piano music that from a nearby house penetrated directly into the offices in Piazza Campitelli, a stone’s throw from the Portico d’Ottavia.

Every day from 11 am to 1 pm and from 4 pm to 6 pm, visitors who decide to take the little archaeological walk that leads to the Teatro Marcello will be accompanied by a sound background created with hidden audio sources that resonate the volumes and spaces surrounding the walkway. Speakers of different sizes and characteristics, arranged in such a way as to enhance the timbre differences of the chosen pieces and offer a varied listening experience during the visit. The pedestrian crossing section of the Portico d’Ottavia was further highlighted with a “holophone” sound projector designed by Crm, whose characteristics allow for the precise management of the sound radiation angle to obtain a limited and clear listening area. Among the songs proposed, curated by the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, some excerpts from the historical recordings of Tosca by Giacomo Puccini with the Orchestra and Choir of the Academy, from Pini di Roma, Feste romane and Fontane di Roma by Ottorino Respighi and, again, the Love Theme composed by Andrea Morricone for the soundtrack of “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso”, while some music by Ennio Morricone from the soundtrack of the film Mission will be broadcast.

THE ROME SMART TOURISM PROJECT

Monumenti Sonori is part of the project “Roma Smart Tourism”, which won, by winning 1 million euros, the public notice regarding “the identification of projects aimed at enhancing municipalities with a tourist-cultural vocation in whose territories there are sites recognized by UNESCO as world heritage sites and municipalities belonging to the network of UNESCO creative cities”, issued by the Ministry of Tourism under the UNESCO sites and creative cities Fund. The project has a second axis, in addition to the Sound Monuments, which in this case concerns Cinema: four new tourist-cinematographic itineraries of Rome, curated by the Cinema Foundation for Rome, which will lead visitors to the places where memorable scenes from the big screen were filmed that made Rome “immortal”, accessible with the new Rome City of Film app. “The itineraries will tell the story of the birth of cinema, the extraordinary experience of neorealism, Classical cinema and Pasolini and finally contemporary cinema that is experiencing a wonderful season”, explained Gotor and then added that it is “a technological and innovative project that speaks to the present and future of the city, starting from its archaeological dimension, and provides every time and in every season an idea of the ancient contemporary, and therefore changed over time. This is in my opinion the duty of those who have the honor of administering the culture of Rome”. The Sound Monuments and the Tourist-Cinematographic Itineraries of Rome will be in dialogue with each other. In the four cinematographic itineraries of Rome City of Film it will in fact be possible to encounter one or more Sound Monuments giving visitors the opportunity to experience a new, more complete and even unusual reading of the different places.