An Expedition to the Baroque in Sicily

There are three famous little baroque villages in Sicily - Ragusa, Modica, and Noto. We had thought about going to all three, but decided (sort of on the fly) that one would probably be enough. Well, we figured we would start with one, and if we hadn't seen enough of the baroque, then we would go on to another.

So we started with the town of Noto. This was a pretty easy drive, about an hour, from Ortigia. Mostly on a four-lane toll road, that had no facility for taking the tolls. Besides, it had construction on it. In any case, it was a toll-free toll road.

We have been lucky with parking this whole trip, and Noto was no exception.

Here is our car, parked on the wrong side of the street (VERY Italian) in a free parking zone. At least we HOPED it was free when we left it.

Right around the corner from where we parked was the gate to the city:

 Which opened on to much baroque splendor.

This was a convent, now a church;

This is the cathedral, or the Duomo. More about the dome a little later.

A closer view. There is a dome, it is obscured in this photo.

Here is another church

And the city hall. It was described as being a "celebration of columns" and indeed it is:

 A panoramic of the area:

Inside the city hall they have a couple of optical illusions.

One is the ceiling, painted as if it were plaster:

and the second is two mirrors set up opposite from each other.

Here are some of the famous baroque corbels of Noto:

 The streets are full of them

And you can't get away from St Lucy in Sicily:

You can walk up to the top of one of the other churches nearby. Here you can see the dome of the Duomo.

It collapsed in 1996 (!) but it was rebuilt:

Panoramic from the top of the church:

I am a sucker for church bells:

I like this shot because you see the dome of the church right behind the dome of that guy's bald head:

Doreen, taking in the view:

More, many more, corbels.

 and more street scenes.

This is the old agora, or market courtyard. Very nice shape and a good feel to this space;

A lot of churches in Noto:

Lots of them

 And cute little Putti!

 Here is a better view of the reconstructed dome:

Then we decided we had enough baroque and drove back to Ortigia.