Petersontravels

We decided to stay in Noto for three nights, as there are some sights we wanted to see to the south along the coast.  On our first day we booked another two hour “Tours by Locals” to get the highlights of the town.  Our guide met us at our hotel in upper Noto and I was surprised that a few of the sights she wanted us to see were very close to our hotel.  First up is The Church of Santissimo Crocifisso, a Baroque church built in 1715.  The second tier of the church remains partially incomplete, lacking a roof (as well as a bell on the left side it appears).

Inside the church our guide showed us this statue of Saint Benedict the Moor, one of Sicily’s most beloved saints, who is widely regarded across the island.  He was born in 1526 to Christian parents who were descendants of enslaved Africans brought to Sicily.  His dark complexion earned him the name “The Moor”.  Although he was illiterate and served primarily as a cook he was well known for his wisdom, piety and reputation for miracles.

This reliquary supposedly holds his remains, and was removed from the ruins of the former church where he was interned before the 1693 earthquake.

Another item that survived the 1693 earthquake was this lion that used to sit outside the original church.  They finally brought this one (and it’s twin) indoors after it suffered centuries of erosion.

The last item in this church is quite bizarre!  This is a statue of Saint Lucy, who has quite the back story.  She was supposed to marry a wealthy pagan nobleman but she rejected him.  He denounced her as a Christian and she was tortured to the point she gouged her own eyes out (note the statue still has eyes?).  Forget the math.

As you can see, she is holding a plate with her eyes upon it.  WTF??  We would see this depiction of her numerous times in Noto and elsewhere, always holding her eyes on a plate like it’s the “Blue Plate Special”.

The church actually sits on a beautiful square where old men congregate each day to tell the same old stories for hours on end before they go home to have lunch.  After lunch they repeat the same thing.  We saw groups of old men sitting around chatting pretty much everywhere in Noto!

As we started walking west towards lower Noto our guide pointed out this building that is the local prison.  Our hotel is just a block away!  This prison building was HUGE!  Not entirely sure how useful the guardhouse was on the corner.

Our guide took us into a government building and had the staff let us out onto their balcony for these views.  This is the benefit of Tours By Locals!

This is the view towards the Mediterranean coast, where we were headed the next day.

We then made our way down to lower Noto, with plenty of steps from this spot.

This is the same staircase from the prior photo, with a Pop Art treatment.  Noto dresses up the town with annual artworks, and this was the latest theme.  It’s been a few months since the installation, and you could see it was falling apart in various spots.

We arrived on the main street of Noto, “Corso Emanuele”, and headed east towards the edge of the historic center.  In the photo below is the official entrance to the city, once known as Porta Ferdinandea, built in 1838 to honor the visit of King Ferdinand II of Bourbon (Spain).

It was renamed to Porta Reale after Italian unification in 1860.  It is also called Porta Nazionale (the National Gate).

The Church of Saint Francis d’Assisi is famous (infamous perhaps) from the HBO show “White Lotus” (Season 2).  If you’ve watched the show this is the church where two of the characters walk down the stairs, one walks off to use the ATM, and the other one has a very odd experience of men aggressively staring and ogling her.  It was very strange to us, as the character isn’t even hot….so what the hell?

It wasn’t until we were here that we realized it was an homage to an old 1960 Italian movie called “L’Avventura” where this scene was shot at the same exact spot.

Our guide pointed out the former entrance to the Church of Santa Chiara, and asked us to guess as to why it had no obvious easy access?  I guessed correctly that at one point the street was actually at the same level as the entrance!  To make improvements within the historic center they lowered the level of the street, thus leaving this church hanging.  They ended up giving the church a new side entrance, but kept the doors here as a memory of what once was.

Here is the interior of the same church.

At the back of the church is this viewing area for the nuns, similar to something we saw in Ragusa.  This was to allow the nuns to view service without being seen, as they had a strict vow of silence and isolation.

The nuns even have a private spot near the altar to take communion.  The translation of the Latin text here is “Come and Eat”.

This is Noto’s WWI  memorial to those from Noto who died in the war..  Directly behind the statue is a memorial to the WWII soldiers.

The evening we arrived in Noto I took a photo of the Fountain of Hercules, which I’m going to show again here but zoomed in.  This statue, which dates from 1756-1757,  originally had him holding a club over a lion he had killed.  In 1838 the local authorities decided to change the statue and replace the club and dead lion with the more “harmless” shield bearing Noto’s coat of arms (which means overly sensitive people have been around a long time, even in Italy!)

Our guide pointed out that the lions paw still exists in Hercules crotch.  Interesting tidbit of info we would not have seen otherwise (particularly since I don’t focus on men’s crotches, even on statues).

I’m showing another photo from my prior post to give the next few some context.  This is the Noto Cathedral, the main attraction in Noto.

This is the interior of the cathedral, which we visited after our guided tour was over.

Beautiful modern artwork adorns the altar area.  While this church was completed in 1776, the dome and most of the roof collapsed in 1996 due to damage from an earthquake in 1990.

This photo shows the current dome and altar.

Here  is a photo from 1996 after the dome and roof collapsed.  It’s amazing to me that we didn’t have color photography in 1996??  I could only find black and white photos.  Maybe it’s a Sicily thing?

One last photo, this really cute doggie named Pipi we met when we stopped for gelato.  We really miss our dog Corky!  By the way, the gelato at “Gelateria L’Artigianala Noto”, very close to the Fountain of Hercules, is excellent!

Coming up next we drive south to the coast to visit Vendicari Nature Reserve and the little fishing village of Marzamemi.

The next morning the bad weather had parted and we were off towards our next stop, Noto.  Our guide in Ragusa told us that if we weren’t fans of Modica Chocolate (which we are not…they make it without milk and it’s very grainy) to just do a drive by at a viewpoint from the road, and to focus on visiting Scicli (pronounced shic lee) which is far easier to walk around and just as beautiful.  It’s worth noting our travel agent Fran also mentioned that Scicli was a must visit.  Fortunately the town of Modica can be viewed right off the side of the road, and we were the only ones there.

This is Modica’s Cathedral of San Giorgio (Saint George, who seems to be quite popular in this region).  The church is a masterpiece of Baroque architecture, with the dramatic flight of steps leading to the entrance.  It was built between 1702 and 1738 (it must have been a government job) on the ruins of a former church that was destroyed by the earthquake of 1693.  Actually, the entire city of Modica was destroyed in 1693!  That 1693 earthquake you keep reading about was a 7.4, making it one of the most powerful earthquakes in Italian history, destroying over 70 towns and killing 60,000 people.

Getting into Scicli was not easy…a very curvy road and then very narrow streets, but we were able to find parking and started exploring.  This town is very old, having first been settled in 300 BC, and control has changed hands numerous times over the years from conquest after conquest….a typical story in Sicily.

As we walked through the historic center you can see this church sitting way up on the hill.  More on that church to come.

We made a right turn and ended up visiting the Church of Saint Bartholomew, which sits right in a scenic gorge.  It was of course built after the 1693 earthquake, with construction starting around 1752 (things move slow in Sicily).

We ventured inside, and while they don’t charge admission the person at the front asked for a donation.  We were the only people there the entire time.  Quite gorgeous inside!

The painting behind the altar is from 1779 and called “The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew”.  He was killed because he refused to worship pagan idols as well as being able to convert a foreign king’s family to Christianity, enraging the local officials.

This fresco on the ceiling also shows Saint Bartholomew, defending his faith before a king or Roman magistrate.

We left the Saint Bart’s and I convinced Kim to take a bit of a hike up to that hill-top church we first saw from the historic center.  We kept going up and up, with the hiking path making us wonder if we were still going the right way.

The reward at the top is the view!  First up, this is the Church of Santa Maria La Nova, built at the bottom of a limestone quarry.  I love the side domes!  It’s worth noting that we were told about an Italian TV show called “Inspector Montalbano” that was filmed here in Scicli as well as in Ragusa.  Scicli was referred to as “Vigata” for the show, something we’ll have to watch when we get home.  It’s apparently quite funny!

There are great views in every direction!

Even the church itself.  Unfortunately the church we hiked up to, Saint Matthew, has been abandoned.  The 1693 earthquake forced those living up on the hill to move to the flatter valley below, and it was just too inconvenient for the parishioners to hike up the hill for mass.  It was officially closed in 1874.  It remains a great spot for photos!

Here is the view looking southwest towards the ocean.  The historical center of the town is in the foreground.

You can continue hiking above the church is you wish.  Here is a green-framed view of the city center from above the church.

One last shot of Scicli on our way back to the car (and more crazy driving).  This is the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, which sits right on the town’s main square.  We opted not to tour the inside, as we are getting a bit “churched out” (aren’t you?).

Our drive to Noto was interesting as Google kept wanting me to drive into the city center of Scicli, which I was not going to do.  We ended up backtracking the same way we came into town.

Noto was unfortunately more narrow streets and crazy traffic, and we arrived just as a funeral was starting in a church near our hotel!  Ugh!  Oh well, at least we found parking and then left the car there for two of our three days here.  The place we stayed, Sikelia Suites, was nice, but the main issue was it’s in the upper part of Noto, so if you want to visit the historic center you have to walk down a shit-ton of stairs, and then of course back up!  We arrived before sunset so we braved the stairs to get some late afternoon photos.  First up is the Fountain of Hercules, which wasn’t working (like so many things in Sicily it seems).

Directly behind the fountain is the Church of San Domenico, considered a masterpiece of Sicilian Baroque architecture.  Unfortunately it was never open to visit while we were here.  Noto is known for their golden hued buildings due to the local stone used in their construction.

This church with the distinctive concave facade is the Church of San Carlo al Corso.  Bear in mind that every building in Noto was built after the 1693 earthquake.  The old town was completely destroyed and then abandoned when they moved here, 6 miles south of the original location.

This is the Noto Cathedral, which will grace any website you look at that encourages you to visit Noto.  It’s in the middle of the historic center and definitely it’s biggest tourist attraction.  We visited later so more details to come.

One last photo as we walked back up the hill to our hotel.  This is the Church of San Girolamo.  I guess I just love those concave facade designs!

Coming up next, we do another Tours by Locals in Noto, which I was surprised also included some stops along the upper part of Noto where we are staying.