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).

St. Sebastian, so much work!

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

The chocolate of Modica

An eagle-shaped city

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

A prominent church

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

A symbol for the town

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

Discovering the mother church

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

A miniature city

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

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

A Nobel Prize in Modica

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

Limestone, the colour of harmony

The colours of the cathedral

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

The theatre of taste

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

Modica, a city with ancient origins

Many owners, one palace

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

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

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

Feasting in Palazzolo

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

Searching for colour

A small room with a golden entrance

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

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

The Baroque town by the sea

Connections with other UNESCO sites

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

The internal colours

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

Wonderful quick decorations

The façade used as a puppet theatre

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

A new site for a new church

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

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

One city, two sites

The two churches

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

A city in colour

Between white and black

The Burgos crucifix

A feast only for Scicli

The wall comes to life

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

A hall for the feasts

Some masterpieces

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

A long reconstruction

Prominent façade

One city, three sites

A half-Baroque church

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

The Staircase of Angels

The city of museums

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

A triumph of colour

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

The church of Carmine

A museum to save a tradition

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

New roads for Catania

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

A talking palace

A colourful floor

Feast days

A majestic and luminous church

Two illustrious patron saints

A new site for a new city

The disastrous earthquake

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

A square as the heart of the city

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

The Maiolica of the staircase

Some prestigious works

The interior and its masterpieces

Norman apses

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

From International Gothic to present day

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century