22 March 2024 – Hello Noto

Miles driven today = 53

Total Miles to date = 2,643

The old town of Noto Antica or “Netum” sat on a rocky ridge which had been inhabited for at least 3,500 years.  Legendarily, Hercules stopped off there for a spot of R&R after slaying the minotaur.  It was also the last Arabic stronghold on the island before they succumbed to the Norman conquest.  Much like Ragusa, which we visited 2 days ago, the town was decimated by the 1693 earthquake.  But unlike Ragusa, the old Noto was abandoned and its citizens went about building a new Noto 10km to the South.

Because they were able to start completely from scratch. Noto was planned out in a gridlike fashion which epitomizes the classic Baroque style.  We made our way to one end of the central Corso Vittorio Emanuele, on which the majority of the town’s most important buildings stand and worked our way eastward from there.

First stop was the Church of San Domenico with the fountain of Ercole in the foreground.

Opposite is the Theatre Comunale.  Originally built for the aristocracy by all accounts but stalls seating was later added for the less well to do.

Ornate stone carvings adorning one of the doorways.

The concave entrance of the Church of San Carlo Borromeo included a mixture of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns.  It was built for the Jesuit Order of Noto.

Palazzo Landolina with War memorial to Noto citizens who lost their lives in the Great War.

The Cathedral’s dome collapsed in 1996 but is now fully restored.

And opposite that is the Ducal Palace which now houses a museum.  The upper section is a relatively modern addition from the 1950s

The Basilica Santissimo Salvatore on the left and the Church of St Frances of Assisi on the right.  Noto really isn’t a particularly big place and I never really understand where they found enough people to fill these buildings, let alone make them financially viable to build in the first place.

At the end of the Corso is this grand arch, the Porto Reale o Ferdinandea.

We nipped up a side alley and started heading back towards where we had parked the van on a parallel Street.  This is the Trigona Palace.

We had heard that some of the staircases had been painted but, disappointingly, anything which may have previously adorned them has been removed.

Typical wrought iron balconies.

Another Church with a concave entrance.  This time the Chiesa di Montevergine. 

And finally the Castelluccio Palace.  A lot of these places are open to the public and, for a fee, you can go in and have a snoop around their grandiose interiors.  But for today we were happy just taking in the sites from the outside.

What remains of the old town of Noto Antica is open to the public so we followed the SS287 out of town in order to take a look.  The final few kilometres took us down a side road which became increasingly narrow and bumpy.  Then a short distance before the entrance to the ruins we came across some pine trees which overhung the road to such an extent that there was no way through for our 3 metre high vehicle.  So we abandoned the idea, did a quick 3 point turn and pointed our nose towards Syracuse.

We pulled up just a few kilometres short of the city, at Camping Rinaura, which is situated in a lovely, quiet, out of the way spot amongst some ancient olive trees.  It’s both an ACSI site and also on the Sicily Camping Tour list, so I’m not sure which scheme we are actually booked in under but it’s €25 with hook up.

We have spent the afternoon sitting in the Sun, reading and enjoying some wonderfully fresh blood oranges courtesy of the site owners.  We are a short distance from a small airfield so we have also been watching lots of people hurling themselves out of light aircraft with Italian flag design parachutes.  It’s something I’ve never done and I’m not tempted.  I don’t think my knees would be up to it if I took up sky diving at my age.

23 March 2024 - Syracuse