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).

Garden of Novices and the restorations by Giancarlo De Carlo

A talking palace

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

The wall comes to life

A hall for the feasts

St. Agatha and the giant candelabras

A museum to save a tradition

Between white and black

Baroque and the loss of equilibrium in the 16th century

Connections with other UNESCO sites

The Maiolica of the staircase

A new palace for the La Rocca lords

One city, three sites

Rosario Gagliardi, the maestro of the Val di Noto

Feast days

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Benedetto

From International Gothic to present day

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

A long reconstruction

Searching for colour

Some masterpieces

The city of museums

Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, who is the architect?

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

The Burgos crucifix

A symbol for the town

The church of Carmine

St. Sebastian, so much work!

Some prestigious works

New roads for Catania

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

The Supernatural dimension of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento

From St. Thomas to St. Joseph

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

The internal colours

A city in colour

A prominent church

A feast only for Scicli

San Benedetto: a treasure reopened to the public

The chocolate of Modica

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

One city, two sites

The cathedral of Sant’Agata: a lengthy reconstruction

The Barresi-Branciforte lords

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

Norman apses

The façade used as a puppet theatre

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

The senses tell about Palazzo Napolino Tommasi Rosso

The character of Badia Sant’Agata

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

Limestone, the colour of harmony

Two illustrious patron saints

An eagle-shaped city

The senses tell about Palazzo Nicolaci

The senses tell the story of the Church of San Sebastiano

The Benedictine Monastery, one of the largest in Europe

Many owners, one palace

The disastrous earthquake

Prominent façade

A new site for a new city

Modica, a city with ancient origins

The senses tell the story of the Church of the Annunciation

The Baroque town by the sea

Corbels: a celebration of the Nicolaci family

A triumph of colour

The theatre of taste

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

A majestic and luminous church

The senses tell about Palazzo La Rocca

The senses tell the story of the Church of Santa Chiara

A miniature city

A new entrance for Santa Chiara (St. Claire)

Discovering the mother church

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

A design by Vincenzo Sinatra

The interior and its masterpieces

San Nicolò l’Arena: an unfinished church

A small room with a golden entrance

The Staircase of Angels

Militello, the story of an enlightened fiefdom

The Feast of San Giacomo (St. James)

Places of knowledge: the Benedictines’ library

Feasting in Palazzolo

Wonderful quick decorations

Fontana della Ninfa Zizza, public water in the town

The colours of the cathedral

A new site for a new church

A Nobel Prize in Modica

The Infiorata, a feast of colours and flowers

The kitchen, a treasure chest of colours

A colourful floor

The senses tell the Cathedral of Sant’Agata

The two churches

A half-Baroque church

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

A square as the heart of the city

The senses tell the story of the church of San Giuseppe

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