If you are looking for an old town to travel back in time and experience a leisurely paced lifestyle, try one of the eight charming towns of Val di Noto: Caltagirone, Militello Val di Catania, Catania, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo, Ragusa or Scicli.
As explained from the UNESCO, what makes these towns so popular is an ‘outstanding testimony to the exuberant genius of late Baroque art and architecture’.
In 1963 Val di Noto, situated in southeast Sicily, was the epicentre of a terrible earthquake that shook up the whole island and demolished the towns in this area. In just a few decades, the Sicilians rebuilt the devastated towns with a completely new urban criteria and an extravagant imagination. This offers contrast to the remaining Baroque buildings which stress an organic design that illustrates the peak of late Baroque style in Europe.