Noto

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

The Infiorata, or Saluto alla Primavera (Greeting to Spring), is one of the most important feasts for Noto and its citizens.
L'infiorata It is a unique opportunity to come together and celebrate. Every year, on the third Sunday of May, since 1979 Via Corrado Nicolaci has been covered in wonderful and colourful pictures of flowers.
On the first Infiorata, the master florists of Genzano, from the province of Rome, were called to Noto to start a long and spectacular tradition, today more alive than ever.
The event is so popular with the public thanks to the many events offered such as exhibitions, rallies and costume parades.
Now let’s find out how the feast is organised today. To create the pictures, every year the Municipality of Noto organises a public competition and asks artists to present and develop a chosen theme.
Only the best sketches are selected.
At this point, having been selected, the experts are asked to complete their paintings when the time is right. 6 metres wide and 4 metres tall, the works cover the whole street, which is 122 metres long.
The end result is a beautiful floral carpet, made of petals from daisies, carnations, gerberas, roses and wildflowers of various sizes and colours.
Though the theme changes year after year, the Infiorata is always opened by the city’s coat of arms made by the Istituto d’arte di Noto (Noto Art Institute).

A museum to save a tradition

Connections with other UNESCO sites

The façade used as a puppet theatre

The role of the religious orders in rebuilding the Val di Noto

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

Feast days

A miniature city

Modica, a city with ancient origins

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

The internal colours

Many owners, one palace

A symbol for the town

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giovanni Battista

A talking palace

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

Discovering the mother church

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

Prominent façade

A small room with a golden entrance

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista

A majestic and luminous church

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

The Burgos crucifix

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

A long reconstruction

The disastrous earthquake

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

Norman apses

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

One city, two sites

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Giuliano ai Crociferi

From the contrast of the exterior to the internal jubilation of colours

The senses tell the story of the Badia di Sant’Agata

A feast only for Scicli

A hall for the feasts

The wall comes to life

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

A Nobel Prize in Modica

Wonderful quick decorations

The theatre of taste

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

The Maiolica of the staircase

The senses tell the story of the staircase of Santa Maria del Monte

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

A triumph of colour

Church of San Giuliano (St. Julian) on Via dei Crociferi: reconstruction

The two churches

An eagle-shaped city

A square as the heart of the city

The colours of the cathedral

The chocolate of Modica

The church of Carmine

Feasting in Palazzolo

One city, three sites

A colourful floor

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

The interior and its masterpieces

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

Searching for colour

From International Gothic to present day

The senses tell the story of the church of Santa Maria del Carmelo

The Baroque town by the sea

St. Sebastian, so much work!

A new site for a new city

A half-Baroque church

Some prestigious works

The Staircase of Angels

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

Between white and black

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

New roads for Catania

Two illustrious patron saints

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

A prominent church

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

The city of museums

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

A new site for a new church

The senses tell the Mother Church of San Nicolò and of the Santissimo Salvatore

Freedom of worship and the role of the Catholic Church in the diffusion of Baroque

Some masterpieces

A city in colour

The senses tell the Benedictine Monastery and San NicoIò l’Arena

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

Limestone, the colour of harmony