Noto Fotos, 1

We had never been to Noto before, nor even heard of it. Normally we would not go out of our way to see anything Baroque, even a town known for  it. One can hardly avoid Baroque in this part of the world. But Noto is another World Heritage Site, it gets three stars for its architecture, according to some guides, its story reminded us a bit of Napier, North Island, and, most important, we had read that Noto's flower festival, going on that very weekend, was one of Sicily's big shows. One of the highlights of our 2011 Sicilian campaign was happening on to Sciacca's Carnival--Sicily's second largest--and we were hoping Noto's flower festival might be another stroke of such good luck. It was.

The original Noto, an important site from prehistoric times, was leveled by an earthquake in 1693. The new town was located some miles closer to the sea, the Ionian Sea, and, being a regional capital, had enough wealth to rebuild itself in the architectural fashion of the day, Baroque. Students of this blog will recall our visits to Napier, North Island, which had a similar experience, sort of, only in the 1930s and in Art Deco.

Anyhow, we spent the best parts of two days at Noto, and took lots of fotos.

That's the flower festival event sign; this year's theme--the
festival has been going on for decades--was China [sic]

Traffic was so choked--scores (hundreds?) of turbusses--so the campground
shuttle let us out still a mile from the centro storico

We could have spent the rest of the day at the large flea market in a park on
the way to town

Need any philosophy books? Maybe Feyerabend's Against Method, in Italiano,
of course

Maybe a Klimt?

Maybe some material for an alligator purse? And matching belt
and shoes?

A souvenir of your visit to Sicily

A wood-burned portrait of Lenin ("I am the walrus" "Shut
the fuck up, Donny")

Here demonstrating a phone case so strong you can not
drill through it, even with a kryptonite bit

But after only a few tables of the market, we joined the throng heading to the
flower thing

It's an up-hill kind of place

We found it expedient, as did others, to cut through a
church here or there, rather than battle through the crowd;
this one a rather muted Baroque

Former palace, now city hall

Baroque dress-up at the height of the festivities