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Sicilia 2026Seven days on the Ionian coast
Day3Day 3 · Wed 19 Aug

Noto & Marzamemi

The most coherent baroque town in Europe, a swim in a nature reserve, and sunset in a tuna village

  • Cattedrale di San Nicolò
  • Palazzo Nicolaci
  • Calamosche
  • Marzamemi at sunset
The honey-coloured baroque cathedral of San Nicolò in Noto at the top of its wide staircase
The Cattedrale di San Nicolò, NotoTeKappa · CC BY-SA 4.0

In 1693 an earthquake flattened the whole south-east. Noto was rebuilt eight kilometres away, from scratch, in one architectural language and one golden stone — the single most complete baroque town in Europe, and a UNESCO site for it. It is also entirely unshaded, which is why we are there at nine in the morning and gone by half past twelve. The rest of the day is spent in the water at Vendicari and then in Marzamemi, a village built around a tuna fishery, for the sunset it exists to have.

What it looks like

The route

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8 stops, by car

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The day, hour by hour

  1. 07:30

    Drive to Noto

    Aci Trezza → Noto, A18 / SS115

    South past Siracusa and inland. The landscape flattens into dry-stone walls, carob and almond. Early on purpose: Noto is limestone from end to end and there is nowhere to hide from the sun in it after eleven.

    Drive1 h 25
  2. 09:00

    Corso Vittorio Emanuele & the Cattedrale

    Noto centre

    The whole town is built of a soft local limestone that turns honey-gold in the sun and almost orange late in the day. The cathedral of San Nicolò sits at the top of a wide staircase; its dome collapsed in 1996 and was rebuilt over a decade using the original techniques. At nine the corso is still in shadow on one side and largely empty.

    Sight1 h 30Free
    Map

    Climb the campanile of San Carlo al Corso (small fee) for the rooftop view over the whole plan — it is one flight, and it explains the town better than anything at street level.

  3. 10:30

    Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata

    Via Corrado Nicolaci

    Famous for its balconies — corbels carved into horses, sirens, griffins and grotesque faces, each one different. The piano nobile inside is worth the ticket, and it is indoors, which by half past ten starts to matter.

    Sight45 min€6
    Map

    The street it stands on is the one carpeted with flower petals for the Infiorata in the third week of May.

  4. 11:30

    Granita at Caffè Sicilia

    Corso Vittorio Emanuele 125

    Corrado Assenza’s place, and genuinely one of the best pastry shops in Italy. Almond granita, candied fruit, cassata. Dispuò’s counter across the street is the local rival if the queue is bad.

    Food45 min
    Map

    Assenza is famous for using fruit and nuts at the point where they stop being sweet. Order whatever is on the board that day rather than the flavour you already know.

  5. 12:30

    Down to the sea

    Noto → the Noto coast

    Out of the town and down through the almond groves to the water. From here on the day is spent horizontal.

    Drive30 min
  6. 13:00

    Lunch by the water

    Lido di Noto

    A beach trattoria rather than anything ambitious — fried fish, a plate of pasta with tomato and almonds, and a carafe of something cold. This is the two-o’clock heat, and the correct response to it is to still be at the table.

    Food1 h 30
    Map
  7. 14:45

    Vendicari — the swim at Calamosche

    Riserva Naturale Orientata Oasi Faunistica di Vendicari

    A protected stretch of coast: salt pans, a ruined tonnara, flamingos in the lagoons out of season, and a handful of coves reached only on foot. Calamosche is the best of them — a few hundred metres of sand between two rock headlands, no buildings, no loungers, water like glass.

    Sea3 hFree (small parking fee)
    Map

    It is about a kilometre from the car park to the cove, on a stony track with no shade at all. Hat, water, and shoes you can walk in — and go in and out of the water rather than lying on the sand.

  8. 18:00

    Marzamemi

    Piazza Regina Margherita

    A 17th-century tonnara — a tuna fishing station — with the fishermen’s cottages, the Villadorata palazzo and a small church all facing one square that opens straight onto the water. The tuna processing stopped in the sixties; the buildings stayed, and the square is now one long terrace.

    Walk1 h 45
    Map

    The name is Arabic, marsa al-hamam, "bay of turtledoves".

  9. 19:45

    Sunset in the square

    Marzamemi

    The sun goes into the sea here rather than behind a mountain, at about ten to eight in the third week of August. A glass of something white and cold, and the whole village out for the passeggiata.

    Food45 min
  10. 20:30

    Dinner in the tonnara

    Marzamemi

    Tuna in every form it takes here — bottarga, tonno rosso, ventresca — plus Nero d’Avola from vineyards a few kilometres inland, and the local sweet Moscato di Noto if anyone still has room.

    Food1 h 30
    Map

    Book. In season the square has considerably more people than it has chairs.

  11. 22:00

    Back up the coast

    Marzamemi → Aci Trezza

    The long one. Straight up the SS115 and the A18 with the windows down.

    Drive1 h 40
    Map