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).

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

Norman apses

Feast days

The façade used as a puppet theatre

The two churches

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

Limestone, the colour of harmony

A museum to save a tradition

A half-Baroque church

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

A small room with a golden entrance

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

Some prestigious works

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

The wall comes to life

Connections with other UNESCO sites

St. Sebastian, so much work!

A colourful floor

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

Between white and black

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

Feasting in Palazzolo

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

The city of museums

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

The internal colours

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

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

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

A prominent church

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

A new site for a new church

The church of Carmine

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

A feast only for Scicli

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

A long reconstruction

A majestic and luminous church

The Burgos crucifix

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

A miniature city

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

New roads for Catania

The theatre of taste

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

The Staircase of Angels

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

A talking palace

The chocolate of Modica

A hall for the feasts

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

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

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

The Baroque town by the sea

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

The interior and its masterpieces

Searching for colour

Modica, a city with ancient origins

The disastrous earthquake

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

The colours of the cathedral

Wonderful quick decorations

One city, three sites

A Nobel Prize in Modica

A new site for a new city

A symbol for the town

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

A city in colour

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

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

Many owners, one palace

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

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

An eagle-shaped city

Two illustrious patron saints

A triumph of colour

Discovering the mother church

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

From International Gothic to present day

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

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

The Maiolica of the staircase

Some masterpieces

Prominent façade

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

One city, two sites

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

A square as the heart of the city

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

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph