Recreational noise: Impact and costs for annoyed residents in Milan and Turin

European cities are experiencing a particular type of noise pollution originated by recreational activities located in the city centers, both anthropic noise, created by the presence of hundreds of people in the “movida” streets at night, and outdoor music due to events or simply related to public places. In spite of the annoyance experienced by the people living in these areas, the phenomenon has been poorly investigated so far. The paper presents in the first part the results of a self-selected Italian sample obtained through a web based questionnaire aimed at threading some light on the nature of the problem, in particular: identification of the most concerned areas, characteristics of the people complaining and evaluation of economic, health and everyday life consequences. In the second part it shows the results of sound level measurements for environmental noise evaluation which have been carried out in critical areas of Turin and Milan in order to give a technical basis to the subjectively reported annoyance and for a numerical evaluation of the problem.