Noto Fotos, 3

We wanted more of Noto and so went back the next morning. Alas, despite the campground keeper's advice, it was pretty much all over, the markets, the crowds, the turbusses, all gone. But the floral mosaics were still there, wilting a bit, and also Noto's grand architecture, and a city getting back to normal after its annual extravaganza.

City portal; just another Monday morning now

Where we had eaten the night before

Enterprising nuns

Another Baroque

Pre-schoolers lined up for a field trip to the gelato shoppe; all in smocks, boys
in blue, girls in pink...

Cathedral; a mob scene the day befoore

The Corrado the next morning

Senatuus Populsque Notourm

Each individual panel labeled, thus

Add caption

About half way up, we began noticing the sculptured balconies of the Palazzo
Nicolaci, among the best in Europe (they say)

We stop in at the public library--in the Palazzo--for a breather

Continuing the floral mosaics back down; here, a dragon
attacking the Great Wall

City on a Monday morning

Kid with tamed parakeets; will let you pose with them for a euro

Idle turbusses

We spent two nights at the Noto Parcheggio Sosta, in a lemon grove; nice folks,
not much more English than our Italian; in  addition to lemons, they also sold
local olive oil, wines, honey, almonds, etc.; more of an ag sosta; the Rose was
pretty good...

Noto Fotos, 2

Continuing our afternoon and evening at Noto's Infiorata...

Noto very certainly has more churches than bars; maybe even pizzerias

All of them Baroque

Helpful model of the cathedral

If it ain't Baroque...

National emblem: Sicily is a triangle with three points; sort
of

This what it's all about: the Corrado Nicolaci paved in floral mosaics; the
wait to enter line was about 30 minutes; we decided to see it next morning

Another church; might have been the cathedral; Baroques all look alike to me;
this one is notable for our having FaceTimed with Rebecca and Penelope from
the nave

Another Sicilian icon; sort of a Pedro y Inez thing, I gather

Floral mosaics notwithstanding, Noto has some other
beautiful displays

Aromatic too

Us at the top of the Corrado Nicolaci

Looking back

They do other staircases too, though not in floral mosaic

With helpful illustrations

Looking at floral mosaics makes you really hungry, so we stopped for dinner;
above, a shared bruschetta; her calzone was not photogenic

But my grilled seafood was; except I don't think I want to know what the thing
on the right was

Walking back through the food market, we stopped and bought some pistachio
brittle; yum

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