Having forgotten my sweater on a bus and being in dire need of a new one, I made a short unplanned shopping stop in Catania. Catania is the hub for eastern Sicily and I was passing through anyhow on my way to Milazzo for the Eolian Islands.

My original plan had been to use Catania as my base for the remainder of my Sicily trip after returning from the Eolian Islands. The first 15min in Catania upon arrival made me revise my plans. The area around the train station is downtrodden and simply terrible. It really had me question the world heritage designation. The overall picture improved when I made my way to the core zone. Especially, the area along Via Etnea is nice with the Piazza del Duomo being the highlight. On sunny days you can see the Etna. Still, this is Italy, so nice is not good enough. As a consequence, I rearranged my travel plans limiting my time in Catania to a minimum.

My second stop was Ragusa. I came by bus from Catania. It's nice, but not spectacular. The nicest views were from the bridges connecting both parts of the city across a deep valley. Had I only visited Ragusa and Catania, I would have really doubted the inscription.

As my last stop, I made my way to Noto. Noto is a spectacular Baroque town dotted with plenty of churches. The most striking feature are the honey-colored limestone buildings.

One final remark on a common misunderstanding. You may think the Val in Val di Noto refers to a valley. It does not. It refers to an Arab administrative region (valli) in the medieval period. It covered southeastern Sicily including Catania.

Getting There

Catania is the easiest as it's the central transport hub in Eastern Sicily (airport, buses, trains). If you are in the area, you will pass through. There are also direct bus connections to most of the other Val di Noto towns.

Noto, Scicli, Modica and Ragusa are all stops on the railway line from Siracusa to Canicattì. The trains don't run all that frequently, but you should be able to visit multiple cities in a single day by hopping on and off the train. You also get scenic views of some of the cities when passing by.

From Piazza Armerina (Villa Romana Del Casale) there are buses to Caltagirone. You should also be able to connect via Gela to Agrigento.

In my case, I passed multiple times through Catania, from where I took a bus to Ragusa. Note that the bus station in Ragusa is outside the city center. After Ragusa I hopped a train to Noto. And then later another train to Siracusa where I stayed overnight.