One of the first things that Tobias Jones comments on in his book: The Dark Heart of Italy (a good introduction to contemporary Italian politics and society) is how loud Italy is. I’m experiencing this right now. The priest is delivering the service through a loudspeaker, which distorts his voice into a kind of echoing quack. The church bells clang out a rhythm. I can hear this all through two metre thick walls and a shut door. I have to say that in Muslim countries, it’s just as bad. Heard without a loudspeaker, the Muslim call to prayer is one of the most beautiful sounds ever. But most of the time it is converted into an indistinct crackling roar. Why do religions never invest in decent PA systems?
It isn’t just the church that is noisy. I do not know who the woman is who walks up the street every morning at about 9 a.m. calling ‘Nello… Nello…”. But I do know that if I were Nello my thoughts in her direction would be distinctly uncharitable.
italy by mistake 
There’s also the problem of overlapping services and calls to prayer making for quite a cacophony – especially when there are lots of places of worship in close proximity and they’re all echoing around narrow streets and those two-metre thick walls.
Some places have mandated a unified system, which seems quite sensible if unromantic: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/08/12/116475.html
“Even though it is technically a requirement for the caller, or muazzin, to have a beautiful voice, many who perform the call simply do not.”
LOL