One day it was the “… Va, pensiero sull’ali dorate…” performed by the Music Band “G. Verdi” which climbed up the jambs of the pillars of the Portici del Grano, to fall from the vaults onto our heads with inebriated minds. Then it happened on the evening of a mild late spring, with the city air smelling intensely of the scent of flowering lime trees, that in the churchyard of the Duomo the same band performed again in Verdi’s arias.

At the corner of Strada Farini a couple, she with the violin on her shoulder, he with his hands on a keyboard, were making a father and his little girl dance. The choir of ladies with a red scarf around their neck under the porticoes of the Old Hospital sang with unusual fervour “Bella ciao” on April 25th.

The accordionist stationed on the stool along Strada al Duomo or in the Piazza played Viennese waltzes for the tourists. At exactly 1pm the soprano appeared from the balcony of the Regio Theatre to amaze the unaware passers-by with her warbles. Travelling orchestras, musical groups, enterprising soloists: the streets of Parma are music.

Then, on those notes, if you observe carefully, from behind the scenes, here they burst onto the stage: “the dancers”. The towers and bell towers of Parma. The shadow around, the “spotlight” or the last sun flood them with protagonist light. You watch them dance in the light, while you listen to all that music that creeps through the villages, slips through the streets, flies lightly into the sky above Parma.