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 cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

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

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

The internal colours

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

A half-Baroque church

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

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

Two illustrious patron saints

Many owners, one palace

The theatre of taste

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

A long reconstruction

Limestone, the colour of harmony

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

One city, three sites

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

A museum to save a tradition

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

The city of museums

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

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

A feast only for Scicli

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

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

Feast days

Norman apses

Connections with other UNESCO sites

Between white and black

A prominent church

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

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

A talking palace

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

A hall for the feasts

A new site for a new city

The disastrous earthquake

The Baroque town by the sea

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

Some prestigious works

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

A colourful floor

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

The church of Carmine

The wall comes to life

Searching for colour

The colours of the cathedral

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

A square as the heart of the city

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

An eagle-shaped city

The Staircase of Angels

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

The Maiolica of the staircase

A miniature city

A triumph of colour

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

Discovering the mother church

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

Prominent façade

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

Wonderful quick decorations

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

St. Sebastian, so much work!

The two churches

Modica, a city with ancient origins

A small room with a golden entrance

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

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

A symbol for the town

Feasting in Palazzolo

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The chocolate of Modica

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

New roads for Catania

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

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

Some masterpieces

A new site for a new church

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

The façade used as a puppet theatre

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

One city, two sites

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

From International Gothic to present day

A city in colour

The Burgos crucifix

A majestic and luminous church

The interior and its masterpieces