[ July 2017 ] Because we were getting to know the geography, on the next day we rented a car and went to Noto on our own, which is a town in the south of Sicily in Italy.
We rented the car in Marina di Ragusa where we were staying and the person in charge told us “Do not panic, if the police stop you. Call us as soon as possible and we will deal with it”.
We have never had this kind of warning from a rent-a-car company.
I wonder this is another speciality in this locality.
Noto is one of the “Late Baroque Towns in Val di Noto”, the Unesco World Heritage site.
It was different from the other towns like Ragusa and Modica where small old houses were built in layers, but here there were many magnificent buildings in bright beige colour which gave me the impression of a rich town.
It just happened that in the alley we went in, there was a tourist information office, so we got a map and had them mark the important sites.
One of them was the Church of Santissimo Salvatore which was just down the road.
There was a sign at the entrance saying that they would give a tour for 4 churches for a fee of €10, including this church.
Because it is more interesting to get information on the spot, we decided to take this service.
We started with this church.
They were proud of the interior which is the most gorgeous in this town.
It was originally a convent for the daughters of the local notables and those nuns who gave up this world attended the Mass, looking down on the ordinary people from upstairs through the gap of the fence.
We went up to the tower of this church and enjoyed the view.
I did not ask how tall the tower was, but apparently this was the highest point in the town, so during the second world war, the British and American forces used this church as their headquarters.
Now, it is a school for people who want to be priests and they live and study here.
I nearly forgot an important thing about Noto.
As we leaned before, this area was nearly completely destroyed by the 1693 earthquake, but unlike the other towns, Noto was rebuilt in a different place.
They abandoned the original town which is about 10 km north beyond a hill.
It seems that there are some ruins to see there.
