Noto, City of the Hermit Saint Corrado, Sicilia

Lovely Noto just a few minutes away from Siracusa, a new town really, reborn after the terrible earthquake on the evening of 11 January 1693 as Mount Etna was erupting devastating all of South East Sicily and destroying numerous towns and villages. Ancient Noto lays in ruin to this day, abandoned some 10 Km away from the new city. No one wanted to live there after the destruction and death of so many people.

                         The cathedral of Noto rebuilt in 2007.

Noto today is a city built a new with baroque churches and palaces, well laid out. It can be visited in a few hours, museums and churches are open in the morning, usually from 8:30 to 12:30 and then close for lunch time.

If you start at the Porta Real and go down the main avenue you will see all the important buildings including the newly re-built cathedral (2007). The original cathedral’s dome collapsed in 1995 after one of the columns supporting it gave way suddenly, the church was severely damaged, it was however rebuilt identical to the original. The drum of the dome has a new fresco showing the nearly naked apostles dancing around with the Mary Magdalene and they point to the Holy Ghost hovering above them, symbol of Pentecost. This representation of the apostles is somewhat startling, they are usually shown as old and serious, dressed as Roman Senators. Here it is the opposite, they could pass for devotees of Dionysius.

Noto also has several other beautiful palaces like the one of Prince Nicolace di Villadorata, one of the first palace to be built in new Noto around 1698. On the street it has these figures supporting balconies, ferocious lions, galloping horses, round face putis, bearded men, etc.

The inside gives you a glimpse of what life was like in the age of Princes.

Noto also has several good restaurants and one good gelateria Costanzo Dolceria behind the Ducezio Palace in the centre of town. There is a funny fresco in this Dolceria, Costanzo who is now dead, stands behind Christ at the last supper and Christ is having a nice glass of red wine while giving the thumbs up, the wine of Salvation or in Vino Veritas. Some might think this sacrilegious but in Sicily it is not, the meaning here is more on the joyful aspects of Faith and Salvation, Sicilians like in the celebration of Easter and of their Patron Saints love to sing and dance and be joyful for the triumph of Good over Evil. Sicily is a place of agriculture and of wine making, the soil is very rich and fertile, people work the earth and produce some of the best fruits, vegetables and wines in all of Italy, not to mention some excellent cheeses. So these activities influences the way they see the world or their world.

                         God the father blessing all from Heaven

You can get easily to Noto by train from Siracusa, a regional train comes by every 2 hours. Though be warned that the Noto Station is closed like most small train stations and no services are provided, you can only board or leave the train. An automatic voice announcement warns you of the imminent arrival of the train. If you do not have a return ticket you can purchase one at a Travel Agency on the main street in Noto.

We were going to skip the visit in Noto but now we are glad we went, it is only a few minutes away from Siracusa and it is so lovely. 

Well our trip to Sicily is coming to an end, tomorrow we go to Catania about 45 minutes driving time from Siracusa, where we will take the ferry to Naples and then on to home in Rome to our puppies Nicky and Nora. We really miss them and the babysitter says that Nicky has behaved himself this time. Some of the cases of wine have also arrived in Rome. This trip was a good deal in terms of gathering excellent Sicilian wines.

Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, City of the Arts

We arrived in Ragusa on a Sunday afternoon at lunch time. The city was deserted not a soul to be seen anywhere, no cars, absolute quiet, very strange really.

Suddenly we turn a corner and a big crowd of children coming out of Church from their First Communion with parents etc. But that was it for people, nothing else, just a quiet sunny day in Ragusa. The city is 537 meters above sea level and the sea is only about 20 minutes away by car, it is a very steep ascension by car on a narrow road with numerous hair pin turns, you have to drive no more than 40 km per hour otherwise you are over the cliff. Once in Ragusa you discover that there is actually 2 towns with two enormous cathedrals. 

                      Cathedral of St-John the Baptist in Ragusa, our hotel is in front of this church.

One is dedicated to St-John the Baptist in the newer part of Ragusa and across the narrow valley on the other hill is the other Cathedral to St-George in Ragusa Ibla. This is the old historic city destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1693 and rebuilt immediately more splendid than before. Ragusa Ibla is a city lined with Palaces to the great families, and of course the two cathedrals would probably fit in a large metropolis instead of a small town with pretension of imperial glory. It is a beautiful city, the baroque architecture and the steep geography makes of the people of Raguzza cliff dwellers with a fantastic panorama. For walking you need good shoes and be ready to go up and down steep streets and long staircases. It seems that staircases is sort of a feature of the town, the cathedral of St-George has no less than 250 steps on its grand front entrance.

 The Cathedral of St-George (Patron Saint of Ragusa) in old Ragusa Ibla.

Arriving at lunch time we were hungry, we decided to look for a place to eat but everything was closed. So we walked for about 45 minutes admiring the panorama all along the way, you see Ragusa is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We finally arrived at Don Serafino which is an award winning restaurant and is featured in Le  Soste di Ulisse.  The restaurant is located in a huge cave which use to be a horse stable. The décor of stark rock and white marble floor is startling. The tables and chairs are very modern, it is elegant and simple but also very refined. We did not choose this restaurant but since we were tired from the drive and very hungry we went for it.

                                   Piazza del Duomo

It’s a high end restaurant but the food was wonderful,

absolutely delicious. I had rabbit meat on a bed of diced green and red peppers with a light Madeira sauce to start. Then I went for the ravioli with a light lemon sauce. The dessert was a granita of blood oranges, very Sicilian.

 Via della Scala ( a long staircase street) 

We then walked back up and down the old streets of Ragusa to our hotel for a well deserved nap.

But before we got to our hotel we crossed Piazza Repubblica and heard organ music in an otherwise totally quiet and deserted Piazza, the music was coming from the Church of the Holy Souls in Purgatory. We went in and were entertained by the organist who was practising. However the music he was playing was Circus music like Barnum and Bailey music, I thought this very odd and could not understand how it could be associated with a church service, but we did find out the next day.

                      A view of Holy Souls in Purgatory Church on Piazza Repubblica 

 You see Ragusa has a great tradition like so many Sicilian cities of the I Misteri, which is a strong link with Easter but also the cult of the Patron Saint of the City. In Antiquity, Greek Gods and Godesses protected the city when Christianity became the new religion patron saints replaced the old Gods. The Festivities remained the same just new names, that is all. In Ragusa May 28-29 are the Feast days of St-George and this involves great parties and the entire city will participate, fireworks, marching bands, great parades throughout the city, ordinary life stops for those 2 days and it all starts in the Cathedral Church building itself.