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 new site for a new city

The internal colours

The Staircase of Angels

Connections with other UNESCO sites

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

A feast only for Scicli

A triumph of colour

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

A new site for a new church

The disastrous earthquake

Searching for colour

Some masterpieces

The church of Carmine

Feast days

A majestic and luminous church

A small room with a golden entrance

The façade used as a puppet theatre

A colourful floor

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

A square as the heart of the city

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

A symbol for the town

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

Modica, a city with ancient origins

Norman apses

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

A prominent church

A city in colour

An eagle-shaped city

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

A hall for the feasts

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

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

Two illustrious patron saints

A long reconstruction

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

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

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

The two churches

The Maiolica of the staircase

Feasting in Palazzolo

The chocolate of Modica

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

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

Many owners, one palace

Discovering the mother church

The theatre of taste

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

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

The colours of the cathedral

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

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

From International Gothic to present day

Between white and black

Some prestigious works

The Burgos crucifix

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

The city of museums

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

One city, two sites

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

A museum to save a tradition

Prominent façade

The Baroque town by the sea

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

A half-Baroque church

A Nobel Prize in Modica

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

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

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

New roads for Catania

A talking palace

Limestone, the colour of harmony

St. Sebastian, so much work!

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

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

The wall comes to life

One city, three sites

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

Wonderful quick decorations

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The interior and its masterpieces

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

A miniature city

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso