Jovanotti and mayor Gualtieri play together at the Circo Massimo during the Jova Summer Party

Surprise at the Circus Maximus during the second and last Roman evening of the Jova Summer Party. Mayor Roberto Gualtieri took to the stage together with Lorenzo Cherubini and, guitar in hand, played with him a special version of "Samba della rosa", the famous song by Toquinho and Vinicius de Moraes brought to Italy by Ornella Vanoni.

For the occasion the text was freely adapted and transformed into a declaration of love for Rome, told in its beauties, its contradictions and in the daily relationship of those who live there: "Rome to see, Rome to dream, Rome to understand and forgive, Rome to serve and liberate". And again: "Rome to fix, Rome to sing, Rome to dance, Rome to discover, Rome to invent, Rome to embrace and remember".

It is not the first time that Jovanotti and Gualtieri have attempted this song together. The two had already improvised it in April in the Capitol, in the mayor's office, on the occasion of the presentation of the Jova Summer Party and the Jova Giro. On that same occasion Gualtieri announced the decision to award Jovanotti the Lupa Capitolina, the highest honor of Rome Capital, which will be awarded to him in the autumn.

What had then been an improvised jam session between Jovanotti and Gualtieri, with his now well-known passion for the guitar, thus became, in front of the audience of the Circus Maximus, a musical homage to the Capital. A return also to the origins of the song: the Italian version of "Samba della rosa" by Ornella Vanoni, Toquinho and Vinicius de Moraes was recorded in Rome, in the Forum studios in Piazza Euclide.