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).

The church of Carmine

New roads for Catania

Limestone, the colour of harmony

Feasting in Palazzolo

A miniature city

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

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

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

A city in colour

The façade used as a puppet theatre

A prominent church

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

The colours of the cathedral

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

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

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

The theatre of taste

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

Connections with other UNESCO sites

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The chocolate of Modica

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

A majestic and luminous church

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

The wall comes to life

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

An eagle-shaped city

Two illustrious patron saints

A hall for the feasts

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

Wonderful quick decorations

Modica, a city with ancient origins

The interior and its masterpieces

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

Norman apses

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

A colourful floor

The internal colours

Feast days

A small room with a golden entrance

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

The disastrous earthquake

One city, three sites

From International Gothic to present day

Prominent façade

A long reconstruction

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

A talking palace

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

The city of museums

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

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

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

A new site for a new church

The two churches

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

A museum to save a tradition

Between white and black

Some masterpieces

A Nobel Prize in Modica

Searching for colour

Discovering the mother church

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

One city, two sites

The Baroque town by the sea

A new site for a new city

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

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

A feast only for Scicli

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

A triumph of colour

The Staircase of Angels

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

A symbol for the town

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

A half-Baroque church

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

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

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

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

A square as the heart of the city

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

The Burgos crucifix

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

Many owners, one palace

St. Sebastian, so much work!

Some prestigious works

The Maiolica of the staircase