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Italy · Sicilia · Historic villages
the town rebuilt from scratch after the earthquake, all Baroque and honey coloured at sunset
After the earthquake of 11 January 1693 Noto was not rebuilt where it stood. The old town was on Monte Alveria, eight kilometres away, and it was left to its ruins: the new one was designed from scratch on the Meti hill, all at once and all Baroque, with straight streets and squares placed where they served to be looked at. The result is a kilometre of Corso, from Porta Reale to San Domenico, where churches, convents and palaces stand in a row as on a stage, in a limestone that turns honey coloured at sunset. Rosario Gagliardi and his pupil Vincenzo Sinatra signed almost all of it. It is one of the eight late Baroque towns of the Val di Noto on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and it is called the capital of the Baroque. Its cathedral collapsed a second time, on 13 March 1996, and reopened on 18 June 2007. The Corso is closed to vehicles, and everything is done on foot.
Sleeping
The centre is closed to cars and all the more so to motorhomes: you sleep outside and walk up, or you sleep by the sea, at Lido di Noto, and come back to town with the motorhome.
Contrada Faldino, SS 115, 96017 Noto (SR)
open all year, with electricity, toilets, showers, water filling and emptying. For the centre the operator runs a shuttle for its guests, included in the rate. On foot it is about twenty minutes, uphill: Porta Reale is some seventy metres higher
up to forty places
Via Alessio Di Giovanni, 96017 Noto (SR)
a sloping open space above the centre, with no services at all, from which you walk down to the Corso
Lungomare Ionio 71, 96017 Noto (SR)
a fenced private area with trees at Lido di Noto, on the seafront, open all year, with a motorhome service point, hot showers and electricity included up to 4 kWh a day. The pitches are level and wide enough for long motorhomes. For the town you take the motorhome again
fifty pitches
Getting around
The motorhome stays parked, and Noto is done on foot: the Corso is flat, the rest climbs.
Seeing
The Corso is walked from east to west, from Porta Reale to Piazza XVI Maggio, and the churches open one after another at the top of their flights of steps. Via Nicolaci climbs to the right halfway along. Noto Antica and Vendicari are outside, and need the motorhome. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
Monument · free entry · 36.89005, 15.07375
Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 96017 Noto (SR)
the entrance arch to the Corso, built in 1838 for the visit of King Ferdinand II of Bourbon, and for this reason also called Porta Ferdinandea. On top there are three sculptures, a pelican in the centre, a tower and a dog. Behind it, to the east, are the town gardens. This is where you enter, and where it is best to begin.
Walk · free entry · 36.89078, 15.07106
the axis of the new town, from east to west, which opens into three squares: that of the Immacolata, with San Francesco, that of the Municipio, with the cathedral and Palazzo Ducezio, and Piazza XVI Maggio, with San Domenico. The plan is attributed to the Jesuit Angelo Italia, with the mathematician Giovanni Battista Landolina. The façades all face the Corso, and the afternoon sun strikes them head on: that is the reason to go up late.
Church · 36.89085, 15.07262
Piazza Immacolata, 96017 Noto (SR)
the first church you meet along the Corso coming from Porta Reale, at the top of a three flight staircase. It was built between 1704 and 1755 by Rosario Gagliardi and Vincenzo Sinatra, with a two order façade. Inside, a single nave with stucco by Pasquale Cascone and Giuseppe Gianforma, and a wooden Immacolata attributed to the Neapolitan workshop of Giacomo Colombo. Since 2019 it has been a Marian shrine. No official source publishes the opening hours.
Church · paid entry · 36.89081, 15.07193
Corso Vittorio Emanuele 122, 96017 Noto (SR)
the largest complex in Noto, the basilica with the former Benedictine convent and the seminary, designed by Vincenzo Sinatra in the first half of the eighteenth century. The grilles on the balconies were for the cloistered nuns, to watch the Corso without being seen. Above the convent is the belvedere tower, which is seen from below. In the convent there is also the Museo Civico Archeologico, which the Comune lists with summer and winter hours without saying when one changes to the other: it is the indoor alternative if it rains.
Church · 36.89043, 15.07163
Via Pier Capponi, 96017 Noto (SR)
an elliptical church, designed by Rosario Gagliardi around 1730 and finished in 1758, on the model of the Roman churches. Inside there is a sixteenth century marble Madonna and Child attributed to Antonello Gagini, brought from Noto Antica. You enter from via Pier Capponi, because the portal on the Corso was left too high when, at the end of the eighteenth century, the street was lowered. From the terrace on the roof you look at the cathedral opposite: there is a charge, and the price and the hours are given only by unofficial sites.
Church · paid entry · 36.89160, 15.07087
Piazza Municipio 1, 96017 Noto (SR)
the mother church at the top of the great four flight staircase, finished in the first half of the nineteenth century. The first dome collapsed in 1848 and was rebuilt; the second collapsed on 13 March 1996, when a pillar gave way, and took the nave and the right aisle with it. It was rebuilt from 2000 with stone from here and from Modica, and reopened on 18 June 2007. The new dome has the Pentecost and the Evangelists by Oleg Supereco, three hundred square metres of fresco thirty two metres up, finished in 2011. In the right aisle is the silver urn of San Corrado, the patron saint. Since April 2024 tourists pay, according to the local press 2 euros, 2.50 with the museum; residents of the provinces of Syracuse and Ragusa do not. The Museo della Cattedrale is next door, in Palazzo Landolina, at via Montuoro 11, every day 10:00-18:00, and answers on 327 0162589. The diocese does not publish the church's hours.
Monument · 36.89071, 15.07054
Corso Vittorio Emanuele 139, 96017 Noto (SR)
the town hall, opposite the cathedral, begun by Vincenzo Sinatra in 1746 on the model of seventeenth century French palaces, with the arcaded loggia along the Corso. Inside is the Sala degli Specchi, oval, with stucco and gilding, and the vault painted by Antonio Mazza in 1826 with the story of Ducetius, the king of the Sicels who founded the ancient city. The hall and the terrace reopened to visitors on 3 October 2026, after more than two years, together with Palazzo Nicolaci and the theatre; the Comune has not yet published the hours and the ticket for the reopening.
Church · 36.89093, 15.06940
Corso Vittorio Emanuele 121, 96017 Noto (SR)
the church of the Jesuit College, begun in 1730 and almost certainly by Gagliardi, with a three order façade that curves towards the Corso. The bell and the high altar come from the Jesuit church of Noto Antica. From the bell tower you climb up to the bell chamber, and from up there you see the roofs of the whole town: it costs little, but price and hours are given only by unofficial sites.
Walk · free entry · 36.89173, 15.06987
Via Corrado Nicolaci 20, 96017 Noto (SR)
the uphill street that starts from the Corso and ends against the façade of Montevergine. On the left is the palace of the princes of Villadorata, begun in 1720 and finished in 1765 with Vincenzo Sinatra, ninety rooms. Six balconies plus the central one look onto the street, each held up by carved corbels, all different: lions, chubby children, centaurs, winged horses, chimeras and sirens. The balconies are seen from below, and it is free. The interiors, with the painted ballroom, reopened to visitors on 3 October 2026, like the Sala degli Specchi, and here too hours and ticket are not yet published. In May the street is covered with flowers for the Infiorata.
Church · 36.89245, 15.07016
the church of the Benedictine convent, at the top of via Nicolaci, finished in 1762 and attributed to Vincenzo Sinatra. The concave façade, squeezed between two bell towers, is made to close the street like a theatre backdrop, and it is seen above all from below. Inside are the altarpieces by Costantino Carasi. Nobody publishes the hours.
Church · 36.89212, 15.06814
Piazza XVI Maggio, 96017 Noto (SR)
the last square of the Corso, with the garden and the fountain of Hercules. Above it is San Domenico, by Rosario Gagliardi, between 1703 and 1727: the convex two order façade is for many the most beautiful in Noto, and inside the Greek cross plan has five domes and the canvases of Vito D'Anna. Opposite is the Teatro Tina Di Lorenzo, inaugurated in 1870, three hundred seats: it reopened to visitors on 3 October 2026 with Palazzo Nicolaci, and otherwise you enter for the Foundation's performances. A little higher up, in via Cavour, Palazzo Castelluccio can only be seen from outside: since 2024 it has been turning into a hotel.
Monument · free entry · 36.94625, 15.02321
the town that stood there before 1693, on Monte Alveria, eight kilometres from the new one, along provincial road 64. After the earthquake it was abandoned, and what remains are the walls, the Porta della Montagna with the motto "numquam vi capta", never taken by force, the castle of 1091 and the ruins of the churches among the olive trees. The Comune does not publish hours, and entry is free. You go there by motorhome, and a morning is enough.
Park · paid entry · 36.80418, 15.09279
the reserve on the sea south of Noto, with the salt pans, the Swabian tower and the old tuna fishery, and beaches that can only be reached on foot. Migratory birds pass through precisely in autumn. The entrances are all on provincial road 19, and the Calamosche one has been closed since September 2026 because of a tree that fell on the road. The ticket is valid all day and for all the entrances; inside there is neither water nor refreshment, and dogs are not allowed. It is on the road towards Marzamemi and not towards Syracuse: it is the first thing to add with a day to spare.
When
Next: Feast of San Corrado · 19 Feb
the patron saint, with the silver urn carried in procession through the town; every ten years it goes as far as the hermitage, five kilometres away
via Nicolaci covered with pictures made of flower petals, different every year on a theme. In 2026 it could be visited from 16 to 19 May, with a 5 euro ticket, 3 for schools, and free for residents of Noto
the international music festival in the courtyard of the Jesuit College, which reached its fifty first edition in 2026, with six evenings from 25 July to 19 August
Remember
Noto · part two
and then?
What to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Noto is the town of almonds, and the simplest way to taste them is cold.
The next stop, ordered by driving time.
Distances and times by road, measured with OSRM on OpenStreetMap data.
Looking
24 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.