Soundscape in the old town of Naples: Signs of cultural identity

Abstract

Like all cities in Magna Grecia, the ancient Neapolis was built along three main parallel, tight, and straight streets called decumani. Since then and during the following centuries, commercial and handicraft activities, as well as social life, have been developed along these streets. The narrow ground rooms forced shopkeepers to occupy the main street to show their merchandise using vocal appeals to magnify their product, and handicrafts to work directly on the street (hammering, sawing, etc.). Music artists had their performance on the streets too. The soundscape in the area was a strong symbol of the Neapolitan cultural identity. Nowadays decumani have kept the main features of the past but some of these are overrun by road traffic. To investigate in which way the traffic noise has modified the soundscape perception and cultural identity, sound walks were registered during day and night time. A number of residents were interviewed and laboratory listening tests were carried out. Despite the congested urban environment and high sound levels, preliminary results have shown that part of the residential population is still able to identify the soundscape more related to Neapolitan historical identity.