Sicily Day Trips: Noto and Agrigento

 

In May 2024 we took a day trip to the city of Noto, and in March we visited Agrigento. 

Agrigento and Nato circled. The blue dot is Capo D'Orlando.

A travel agency in our town sometimes offers Pullman day tours to various Sicilian cities, which is a convenient way for us to explore, since we do not have a car. We did the same for our February trip to Acireale. The trips are typically linked to important festivals in each town, which is nice, but proposes challenges in terms of crowds, congestion, and confusion. There were some disappointments in our Agrigento trip in particular, but we made the best of it. Despite the challenges (all travel has them!), these trips are a great opportunity for us to get out and enjoy some beautiful cities. Sicily is diverse and has so many interesting places to visit!

Agrigento

For this day trip, we started with a false assumption - that the Almond Blossom Festival would be held at the archaeological park where the ruins are. As it turns out, most of the day was spent in Agrigento proper, for a parade and other typical festival activities, with only a brief visit to the ruins after much confusion about transferring. What we really wanted to do was visit the ruins. Instead we spent most of the day being crushed by crowds and receiving conflicting messages about how and where we would transfer to the park. 

This was our first time driving through the interior of Sicily. I was surprised how green it was. It reminded me a bit of parts of Ireland and Scotland. I enjoyed the bus ride, even though we left very early in the morning! Based on what I've said so far, you might not be surprised that I have very few pictures from the town of Agrigento.

John was as prickly as that cactus, and I was about the same. But, finally, we got to the good stuff ...

Temple of Concordia. One of the best preserved temples in the entire Greek world! Circa 450 BC.

Detail from a famous statue of Icarus, placed in 2011.

Temple of Juno, also c. 450 BC, had columns over 6 meters tall.

Old city walls

Views

The archaeological area of Agrigento, AKA the Valley of the Temples, is a UNESCO site. We only got to see a small portion, but what we did see was fantastic. We look forward to returning in the future for a full explore!

Noto

The big event happening in Noto was Infiorata, an annual festival of flowers. During this event, one long street is carpeted with large pieces of floral art created by artists from around the world. 

Photos from public sources. Every year's Infiorata has a theme, and for 2024 it was Giacomo Puccini.

There are other floral displays scattered throughout the main street, as well as typical festival events involving food, music, and culture. Our tour included transportation, entrance fee for the carpeted street, and, as we learned upon arrival, a walking tour of the city centre. Based on our experience in Agrigento, John and I had already decided that we would most likely skip seeing the carpeted road and spend our time doing other things we would enjoy. Still, we went to the meet-up point to collect our tickets and to see the area.

All those people standing in line the length of Noto Cathedral were just a portion of the queue to see the carpeted street up close. The line was this long even when it started raining. No thank you. Construction on this Sicilian Baroque building was completed in 1776.

There were plenty of alternatives on offer.. First we went to check out a cute display of flowers and Sicilian carts in the park in front of Chiesa di San Domenico. In front of this was a fun display of Vespas, and then across the street a mini car show. 

This cart was absolutely gorgeous!

Some 3-dimensional detail from the carts.

This cart featured religious themes.

Being from Detroit, you know we can't resist checking out a car show. I love the little blue one with the 'luggage carrier.' Her name was Lauretta.

I had previously read that there was a special show on Caravaggio in Noto, and when we walked past the art museum, it seemed like a perfect thing to do!

Caravaggio's Sicily was held in Convitto Delle Arti, a lovely old building. The exhibit traces Caravaggio's association with and influences from and on Sicily. It featured several significant paintings described as Caravaggesque, culminating with a Caravaggio original. 

The show was of special interest to us because we recently watched the Netflix series Ripley, in which a significant theme is the title character's search for Caravaggio paintings throughout Italy. We had also seen a famous Caravaggio on a recent trip to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Just like Mr. Ripley, many of the paintings featured people behaving badly, and seemingly enjoying it!

Detail of Lapidazione di Santo Stefano by Matthias Stomer, c. 1640.

Detail of The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew by Juisepe di Ribera, c. 1630. It seems this artist had several works with this same title, as it was a favored theme. Look how gleeful the man with the knife is! 

Neptune Chases a Nereid by Luca Giordano, c. 1675. 

Detail shot. She was beautiful.

This painting, The Nativity, by Paolo Geraci, had a connection to Mr. Ripley. The history is better explained by the sign than by me, but the connection is that when the show was filmed they had to put a duplicate of this in the Oratory of San Lorenzo, because the show took place before the date it was stolen.

St. John the Baptist at the Spring, Caravaggio, c. 1608

The weather turned sour while we were in the art museum, so we decided to go to another nearby museum for a dry activity. This Civic Museum turned out to be quite interesting, so I'm glad we chose to visit there.

Map of Noto before the 1693 earthquake. The museum had a VR component, but since we are both prone to vertigo, we skipped that.

Uncovered ruins from ancient Noto, estimated 12th century.

We also popped into Chiesa San Carlo Borromeo for a quick peek. It had an intriguing exterior.

Buckbeak! And a very pretty Mary Chapel.

This was the original Jesuit church of Noto. Most of the original was destroyed in the earthquake.

While we didn't see the carpeted street close up, there was other flower art on display as we walked around. As well, on our walking tour, we were able to view a portion of the street from the top.

A closer look at the art.

The top of the carpeted street.

The walking tour was nice, but we were pretty tired by the time we began at 3:30. When we got to the last stop that was going to involve climbing up a gazillion steps, we told our guide that we would meet back with the group at the bus pick-up point. Then we had a leisurely walk and an ice cream. :) 

Here are some photos from the walking tour, as well as some random ones throughout the day ... a mini photo-essay I hope you'll enjoy.

Chiesa di San Domenico must have been my favorite building, because I had more pictures of it than any other! It is quite impressive.

Part of our group on the walking tour. These stairs, along with others, were painted for the festival. Very pretty! Any of John's cousins spot the name of the Palazzo that the stairs lead to...

Palazzo Impellizzeri! (That's John's mother's surname.)

Noto was quite lovely, and we hope to return to visit again, especially since it and several nearby cities (also of interest) are part of the UNESCO site Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto.