Corso Vittorio Emanuele

The Corso is the spine of Noto's UNESCO-listed historic centre — a wide, straight street running east to west, lined with the amber-coloured limestone palaces, churches, and convents that were built in the half-century after the 1693 earthquake. The scale is deliberately impressive: wide enough for processions, flanked by buildings tall enough to create a canyon of golden stone.

The best time to walk the Corso is late afternoon, when the west-facing facades catch the sun and the stone glows. The worst time is midday in July and August, when it fills with tour groups and the heat is oppressive. The passeggiata (evening stroll) after 7pm restores the street to its intended purpose as social theatre.

things to do sight
A story
The entire urban centre of Noto was rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake not on the old site — the ruins of Noto Antica are 8 km away in the hills — but on a new location in the valley below. The decision was made by the Spanish viceroy Giuseppe Lanza, Duke of Camastra, who reportedly decided the ruined hilltop was unworkable and ordered the new city built on the plain. The reconstruction took nearly a century and was funded partly by the great landed estates of the Iblean plateau.