Europe

[Visited: September 2020]

When a travel guide calls a town an essential stopover, when you know it is a Unesco World Heritage site, and when your Italian friends plead that you should really see it, there is only one thing you can do. Especially if you then read a claim that it has the best gelato of Italy, which is quite something for a gelato lover like me. So I head out of my base Siracusa one Sunday morning, and drive the half hour to Noto, park, and walk to Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the main street of town. A city with a rich history going back to the 18th century BCE, it has seen a varied array of rulers, like much of Sicily. Its fate was sealed by a devastating earthquake in 1693 (killing half the population); within a week it was decided to build a new city some 16 kilometres to the south. There was resistance against the plan, also because it was devised by a Spanish Sicilian, but building started soon after anyway. Since it was developed and realised in a few decades by a handful of architects and city planners, the town has a remarkable uniformity in style.
This becomes immediately clear when you walk around the streets of Noto. A perfect grid of streets, with buildings constructed of Iblean limestone in Sicilian baroque style, makes for a coherent image for the visitor. The north-south streets run uphill towards the north, while the east-west streets are more or less level, thus creating a nice effect of altitude difference. I start my exploration at the west side, and soon after walking down Corso Vittorio Emanuele, I stop frequently to admire various churches, piazzas, and palaces. I soon some close to what is supposed to be one of the best gelaterie of Italy, but find it closed; fortunately, the other contender is around the corner and I have a very delicious gelato giving me some added energy for the rest of my walking tour of the city. It is a Sunday, to the cathedral has a continuous going and coming of people, and I walk the street to the New Gate, Porta Reale, which has a pelican, a dog, and a tower sculpted on top: the symbols of sacrifice, loyalty, and strength, showing the allegiance of the city to the Bourbon monarchy. I turn around, and after a few blocks, turn right, walking uphill.
Immediately after leaving Corso Vittorio Emanuele behind, I am almost alone in the streets of Noto. There are more palaces here, the Montevergine church, and in the street running down from it, the Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata. I immediately see this is a prominent building, with remarkable sculpted figures under its balconies, and I spend a while walking up and down the street to enjoy the lavish palace, with lions, galloping horses, women and cherubs supporting the iron-barred balconies above their heads. I then walk up the decorated stairs to the higher part of Noto, where I find regular houses, still more palaces, and churches. The style is still congruent with what I have seen so far. I walk down on the west side again, back to the main street, where most visitors have already disappeared. I cannot resist going back to the gelato shop for another try at their godly creations, before I cruise the streets, back to my car.

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Noto (Italy)

Noto > Italy > Europe

[Visited: September 2020]

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