The orange garden

The recording, made on 1 June 2017, opens with jet fighters from the famous acrobatic group the Frecce Tricolori flying over the skies of Rome, preparing their manoeuvres for the 2 June Festa della Repubblica celebrations (you can see what the resulting parade was like here).

We hear a busker performing “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” by Elvis Presley for voice and acoustic guitar, while we hear tourists conversing in different languages and walking around.

From three minutes, the song ends, and we walk across the gravelled paths of the garden (with a little unfortunate handling noise!), pausing to listen to birdsong.

At 4.08 another jet fighter passes overhead, again practising manoeuvres over the city. We hear an electric gate closing, then the sound of a car alarm briefly lights up the soundscape.

We end at a fountain in the garden, and the recording closes with the sound of running water into the fountain pond, interspersed with the voices of pedestrians. Finally, as the hour sounds, there is a faint snippet of bells ringing through the air at the close of the recording.

Recorded by Cities and Memory.