NOTO is far from Syracuse 30 km around, placed in the south ovest zone of the province, in the base of Iblei Mountains. Its coast, between Avola and Pachino, gives the name to the homonymous gulf. In the Noto territory there are two rivers: the Tellaro and the Asinaro.

The native site of the city, ancient Noto, is 8 km more to north on the Alveria mountain. Here there are the first human installations, that go up again to the age of the Ancient Bronze or Castellucciana (2200 - 1450 a.Cs.), as the recovered archaeological testified. According to an ancient legend, Neas, that would have been the name of the Noto more ancient, was the town in wich the commander Ducezio was born (Ducezio, in the V century a.C., defended the city from the Greek raids). Well soon Neas, or Neaton, entered in the sphere of influence of Syracuse. In the 214 a.C. around Neaton opened its doors to the army of the roman consul Marco Claudio Marcello, and it came so recognized as city allied by the Romans (that Netum called it) as Taormina and Messina.

After the occupation of Sicily (535-555 around) from emperor Giustiniano's Byzantine legions, the territory of Noto had enriched of monuments as the basilica of Eloro and the Trigona of Citadel of the Maccari, the Oratory of the Falconara and the Crypt of Old St. Lorenzo, the Cenobio of St. Marco, the Village of region D'Arco. In the 864 Noto was conquered by the Arabs of the ras Khafaja ben Sufyan, that strengthened it.

In 1091 Noto was conquered by the Gran Count Ruggero of Altavilla. In this period the construction of the castle and the Christian churches began. During the kingdom of the emperor Federico II of Swabia, Noto was governed by the count Isinbardo Morengia, and in this period the monastery of Saint Maria of the Arc was built.

On April 2nd 1282, Noto participated in the insurrection of the "Vespri Siciliani". In 1299, during the war for the possession of Sicily between Federico III of Aragon and Carlo II of Angiò, Ugolino Callari (or of Callaro) opened the doors of the town to Roberto of Angiò, child of Carlo II.

The duke Pietro of Aragon made to build in 1431 the Tower of the Castle of Ancient Noto. In 1503, for intervention of the bishop Rinaldo Montuoro Landolina, the king Ferdinando II of Aragon conferred to Noto the title of "clever City" for the so many characters that in 400 distinguished themselves in the field of the art, of the Letters and of the Science, as Giovanni Aurispa, Antonio Cassarino, Antonio Corsetto, Andrea Barbazio and Matteo Carnalivari.

On the 11 January of 1693 the city, in its shine, was destroyed by an as terrible as powerful earthquake, that caused death of around 1000 people. Immediately after the terrible event Giuseppe Lanza duca di Camastra, named general Vicar for the reconstruction of the Noto Valley, established to build downstream the city in other site 8 kms on the slope of the Meti mountain.

In 1861 Noto, after the invasion of Giuseppe Garibaldi, entered to belong to the Kingdom of Italy, initially preserving the title of chief town of province, then moved in Syracuse to 1865. In 1870 the Town Theater was inaugurated. Around 1880 at Noto the railway station was built.

Today Noto is considered as capital of the Sicilian Baroque and it has been declared patrimony of the humanity by the UNESCO. The buildings and the monuments to be visited are indeed so many, but also the roads, the alleys, the balconies have architectural elements to appreciate. Among the civil buildings, we remeber the Ducezio Building, center of the Commune (inside it there is the "Room of the Mirrors"); the Real Door (Ferdinandea); the Town Theater; and the noble buildings, as Trigona of Cannicarao Building, Landolina of St. Alfano Building, Rau of the Ferla Building, Lorenzo del Castelluccio Building, Impellizzeri of St. Giacomo Building, Astute of Forgione Building.

Among the religious buildings to be visited we remember:

- Mother church St. Nicolò (Cathedral), where the silver urn is preserved that contains the bare deadly of
- St. Conrad Confalonieri;

- Church of the Holy Crucifix, in which the Madonna Bianca of Francis Laurana is preserved;

- Church of St. Domenico, in which a cloth of Vito D'Anna is preserved (the Madonna of the Rosary);

- Church of Saint Chiara, in which a cloth of Antonello Gagini is preserved (the Madonna with the Child);

- Church of Saint Maria of the Arc, in which a cloth of Anthony Manno is preserved (the Presentation to the Temple);

- Sanctuary of St. Conrad out the boundaries, on whose greater altar there is a cloth (Madonna with her Child
- and St. Conrad) of Sebastiano Conca. Here there is also the body of St. Leonzio Martyr.

- Sanctuary of the "Madonna della Scala", in which the sacred image of the Madonna della Scala and the body of
- St. Franzo Martyr are guarded;

- Monastery of the Holy Salvatore, today's seminar.

The tourism of Noto, besides rotating on the architectural and historical beauties of the city, it also enriches its offer with artistic and cultural appointments that recall thousand of people for their oneness. One of these is the "INFIORATA", a demonstration that, from 1980 (year of the first edition), regularly develops it every year on third Sundays of May. A whole street (NICOLACI street) is decorated with sketches and representations to theme, performed using only flowers, petals, peat, in the suggestive scenery of this road in light slope that arrives in front of the Church of Montevergini. The Infiorata of Noto is known in all the world, and in the days when the jobs are exposed, in the city arrive thousand of people by organized pulmann or by own cars.

And there are also the natural beauties of this stupendous angle of Sicily. The sea, the coast, the hinterland have each their charm. In the territory of Noto there are also some naturalistic pearls that have great historical-archaeological importance. They are the Natural Reserve of Vendicari, of the Natural Reserve Cavagrande of the Cassibile, of the beach of Calamosche, the Villa of the Tellaro, and Eloro.