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 half-Baroque church

A hall for the feasts

Between white and black

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

A colourful floor

A miniature city

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

New roads for Catania

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

A new site for a new church

Wonderful quick decorations

Many owners, one palace

Some masterpieces

The chocolate of Modica

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The disastrous earthquake

From International Gothic to present day

Feast days

A majestic and luminous church

A prominent church

A new site for a new city

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

Some prestigious works

A city in colour

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

The city of museums

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

The Baroque town by the sea

A symbol for the town

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

Limestone, the colour of harmony

The Maiolica of the staircase

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

The theatre of taste

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

Norman apses

St. Sebastian, so much work!

The façade used as a puppet theatre

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

Modica, a city with ancient origins

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

The colours of the cathedral

A long reconstruction

The church of Carmine

A small room with a golden entrance

An eagle-shaped city

Prominent façade

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Staircase of Angels

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

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

One city, two sites

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

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

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

Searching for colour

A Nobel Prize in Modica

A talking palace

A square as the heart of the city

The internal colours

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

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

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

Connections with other UNESCO sites

A feast only for Scicli

The two churches

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

Two illustrious patron saints

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

A museum to save a tradition

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

A triumph of colour

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

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

One city, three sites

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

The Burgos crucifix

Discovering the mother church

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

The interior and its masterpieces

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

The wall comes to life

Feasting in Palazzolo

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

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

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

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

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