A colorful, enchanting event held on the third weekend of May in a beautiful city: we’re talking about Noto, the capital of Sicilian Baroque, and its suggestive Flower Festival, surely one of the most famous events in southeastern Sicily where some of our best Villas in Sicily’s Baroque towns are located.
From May 18th to 20th the elegant Via Nicolaci will be the prestigious set of the 39th edition of the Flower Festival of Noto. This year’s theme is “China in bloom: The Silk Roads”. After last year’s twinning with the small city of Munich, this year the main guest of the Infiorata will be China, with its colours and flower artists. The Flower Festival of Noto is part of the Baroque Spring, a series of events including the Baroque parade, consisting of auctioneers in period costume, flag-wavers and musicians, parading through Noto’s city centre.
Noto’s Flower Festival has a quite long tradition: it was founded in 1980 after the encounter between some of the most important flower artists of Noto and Genzano, a city of the province of Rome, right where this peculiar painting technique was born. But how do the master florists work? First of all, they spend entire months working on their drawings and on the design of the paintings. They first sketch them on the floor, using chalk and marking each line with soil or coffee grounds. Then the artists fill these incredible creations using flower petals of various colour and their soft petals to create marvelous flower carpets with religious, mythological and folkloristic decorative trims on the streets, which cover an area of 700 square meters.
The main showcase takes places in Via Nicolaci, sided by some of the most refined buildings of Noto, such as the palace of Prince Nicolaci Villadorata and the Church of Montevergini, people can look down to admire the flower compositions and then up to enjoy the wonderful sinuous wrought-iron baroque balconies which have been defined the most beautiful in the world.
Noto is ready to amaze thousands of visitors until the evening with shows, cultural events, exhibitions, city’s centre tours, museums and churches open until late night. Be sure not miss this thrilling experience during your next trip to Sicily. Book now the Syracusa and Noto Villas of your dreams and enjoy the Baroque spring of Noto!
