Noto’s Infiorata

May 13, 2011 5:00 pm

to

May 16, 2011 5:00 pm

May signs the beginning of the summer holiday season in Sicily with temperatures in the mid to upper 20s Celsius (in the 70s F). Noto’s Infiorata, one of the most colorful festivals anywhere in the world, takes place every year in the middle of May.

For two and a half days, Via Nicolaci, one of Noto’s many delightful streets, is taken over by local and foreign artists who work together on a set theme to create a kaleidoscopic carpet of petal mosaics using flowers grown specifically for the event.They set up shop and begin work on their allotted pieces of pavement on Friday and the show is open to all-comers on Saturday and Sunday. A variety of other activities, including parades and sideshows, add to the general carnival atmosphere and the delightful, ingenious Baroque palazzi and churches of Noto provide a perfect backdrop.

Monday morning is the day of the town’s children, who are let loose to run through the temporary artworks in a symbolic display of destruction and renewal. Part celebration of Spring, part homage to Noto’s virtuosic artistic heritage, the festival provides an excellent excuse for a mid-May getaway.

By Maria Lina Bommarito

Noto and Giardini Naxos are awarded at the OURCOAST Project

At the OURCOAST Project, only two Italian cities made the list of the 300 best environmentally managed coasts in Europe: Noto and Giardini Naxos.

Noto is a city in the Province of Syracuse, located at the foot of the Iblean Mountains and gives its name to the surrounding valley, Val di Noto. In 2002 Noto and its church were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Giardini Naxos is located in the Province of Messina, on the coast of the Ionian Sea on a bay which lies between Cape Taormina and Cape Schis