Noto and Noto Antico
We took a day-trip to the city of Noto, about an hour south of Syracusa. Noto is known as a particularly pretty city, with a bunch of beautiful buildings. The city was built from the ground-up after the 1693 earthquake. In fact, after the quake, when the city’s movers and shakers looked around they decided that the destruction was so complete that they’d just start over five miles away, which they did, thus ending the life of a city that had been founded in 263 BC; 1,800 years of history down the drain.
The new Noto was - and remains - a nice city; starting all over has its advantages. The streets were laid out well, the buildings all designed in the vogue of the day, Sicilian Baroque, and living areas were designed to use the hillside site to provide views.
We enjoyed our visit to Noto - it is, indeed a beautiful place and likely deserves more time. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and like many such places, draws lots of tourists during the day. I think the way to visit Noto is to stay a couple nights so you could see the city before and after the tourists fill it.
The Cathedral
The Noto Cathedral has an interesting history. Built in the late-1600s/early-1700s after the earthquake, it was reconstructed twice in the 18th century after two collapses, likely the result of more earthquakes. Then in the 1950s, it was heavily renovated with new wall and ceiling art, but the biggest change was replacing the roof of the nave with heavy Roman brick and concrete, which caused the whole nave to collapse in 1996. Maybe the architects should have paid a little more attention to what they learned in archtecture school about loads and stresses, eh?
The Main Street
This street bustles during the day! Lots of stores and restaurants and interesting buildings.
And tourists! Hordes of tourists everywhere!
I had a food adventure in Noto. We decided to eat at a pizza restaurant. I ordered a margherite pizza that was described as having fries and wurstel. I figured fries got messed up in translation and it was going to come with sliced potatoes or something. The pizza arrived, piled high with french fries - not very good french fries. And the wurstel was essentially a sliced up hot dog. Ack! It was awful. Fortunately everyone else took pity on me and gave me a slice or two of their pretty good pizzas.
Noto Antico
Laurie read in Rough Guide that folks can visit the site of the original city of Noto and see remains of the buildings that were deserted after that killer earthquake 300+ years ago. We all thought that sounded interesting, so off we went.
The main structure still standing is a large fortress built during the times when Norman kings ruled Sicily (11th century), several times rebuilt and added to. The earthquake couldn’t destroy it, but the damage was severe and the 300 subsequent years have had their effect. Still, pretty amazing to see it. There are also some walls and parts of other structures still there. Honestly, Noto Antico was about as interesting as the current city of Noto.
Noto Antico is an interesting insight into that long-ago earthquake. What was before the shaker a bustling and important town, fell to the ground, and there it remains. Hundreds of other towns and cities in eastern Sicily suffered the same fate, but as far as I know, only Noto decided to pick up and move to a new site.