I remember once when I was about 7 years old and woke up in a hotel room in Italy. I can't recall what city in Italy it was, but the feeling when I woke up was amazing.
The sun shined through the white long curtains and outside my open window I could hear a street and a city that was just waking up. I could hear cars driving by, people signaling with horns and bells on their scooters and bicycles, people talking while walking down the street and yelling "Good morning!" to people they knew across the street.
The smell is a bit harder to describe, but it was a mixture of smell of the pavements, the smell from the small vegetable and fruits shops that were opening up early in the morning and the smell from the cafe across the street where people were stopping by to get their morning espresso.

The smell and sound of my city (Gothenburg) is a different story. Firstly Gothenburg is right by the sea, therefor you get an ocean smell. Not like the smell of beach and seaweed, it is more an icy smell of the salt of the ocean. If you've ever been on a boat on the sea at dusk or dawn, that smell is a part of Gothenburg´s smell. Mixed with the icy smell of the sea is the natural smell of the city. The smell of the pavements, the people and the traffic.
Gothenburg has a very distinct sound, we have trams in this city and they have a distinct sound when they swings around corners. It is a squeaking noise, but not in an annoying way but a soothing and calm way. That sound is something I think all people from Gothenburg miss when they move away from here. It is like a soft layer of cotton which cocoons the city from the outside world.


This spring I will visit Florence(for a week) and London(for a month) and this time I'm going to make sure that I'm aware of how the cities smell and sound. I regard the smell and sound of a city like a sophisticated and subtle visiting card for that specific city.