The current Noto, the well-known capital of the Sicilian baroque, is a city-work of art erected following the disastrous earthquake of 1693 by brilliant minds of the time. However, the original Noto, pre-existing to Greek colonization, probably of the matrix sicula, held in high esteem by the Greeks, then foederata Roman like Messina and Taormina, which gave its name to the homonymous Vallo (one of the three in which Sicily was first divided into the Arab era, then Norman), or rather, the remains of that city that it was once the magnificent Netum, located on the ridge of Mount Alveria, ten kilometers from today's site.
At Noto Antica we arrive from Noto continuing on the SS287 towards the Iblei, and then turn left on the SP64. Unfortunately, the last stretch of road, about 750 meters, is extremely complicated to travel, because, even if paved, it narrows almost to a single lane, with few openings in which to approach to allow the passage to cars that come from the opposite direction. In Noto Antica you can only get there by own means, as no public transport service arrives there. The archaeological site is not guarded, admission is therefore free and can be entered at any time of the day. The car can be left near the entrance, in a sort of unguarded parking lot. Inside the archaeological park, the circulation to private cars should theoretically be forbidden, but every now and then I seemed to see along its main path of cars that did not show the signs of the forest police ...


The Parco dell'Alveria is the set of archaeological areas that include broadly Noto Antica in the south and a Necropoli of probabilissima sicula origin north. The two areas are separated because Noto Antica, especially on the side of Porta della Montagna, that is from the main entrance, is bounded by the imposing sixteenth-century walls that resisted the devastating earthquakes of the 1693. The depth and the invoice of these walls give the measure of how important the city of Noto was in ancient times. At the entrance there are two maps: the first, canonical, depicting the paths and ruins of the park; the second, extremely interesting, depicts the original Noto that a Franciscan friar had in time to draw a few years before the earthquake, a great help for the identification of the exact location of the ruins. The last time I had the pleasure of walking down the path was in mid-September 2017, with a pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter in a stroller. The day was not too hot, fortunately. To reach the almost immediate Castello Reale I had to leave the stroller down and pick up the baby: know then that enter the archaeological site of Noto Antica is more like a medium difficulty trek , what a walk on the promenade of Marzamemi ... So equip yourself well. Otherwise you can always stay on the easiest main path to meet the ruins of the New Hospital, of the Palazzo Landolina of Belludia or of the Jesuit College. But if you want to reach for example the Arab Tanneries or the Greek Ginnasio know that with pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter in tow, it is quite complicated ...


Noto Antica gives rise to conflicting emotions. If you pretend to proceed for an unexplored territory, invaded by the disorderly vegetation typical of these altitudes and latitudes, in which almost by chance you can see ancient ruins of which nobody knows anything yet, then we forget that in truth it is archaeological site of great historical importance, because here they have placed a residence, as suggested by the nearby necropolis of Culture of Castelluccio, Sicani, Siculi, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Aragonesi et cetera, before the devastating earthquake of the Val di Noto radiated almost everything to the ground. Then we forget that those complicated paths to travel, that lush vegetation that encompasses everything, rhymes with carelessness ... Certainly, the irregular course of the paths with branches, steps, widenings that were once lived and frequented squares, such as for example Piazza Maggiore, is typical of a medieval structure. But this does not justify the state of semi-abandoned: once that path with stairs was passable even without trekking boots ...
In recent years, however, there has been a renewed interest in Noto Antica, also by the Municipality of Noto in an attempt to involve also the Superintendency and University. A not inconsiderable advantage of the archaeological site of Noto Antica, is not to be located below a modern town, in which public interests in case of archaeological findings would clash with private ones, resulting in obstructionism when not in real and own judicial disputes. For example, in Rome, wherever excavations are found, there are remains and archaeological finds, then bureaucratic skeins to be untangled, as for example during the recent work of expanding the subway. In Messina, a city hit several times by devastating earthquakes (the last one in 1908), rebuilt on its rubble, often rumors of alleged findings from construction companies, hurriedly covered to not see the works blocked by the Superintendency. br> Regardless of making it a tourist attraction, the Archaeological Park of Alveria should be better taken care of and investigated, also proceeding with new excavations, above all in order to deepen the prehistory of Sicily and the Mediterranean that, from a recent discovery by the Sicilian archaeologist, Davide Tanasi, would seem a little different from what we have studied on school books.


If the origin sicula of Noto was established (but to do so, unfortunately, they would need funds and excavations that are not there) would further confirm the thesis that the Sicilian peoples, in the era prior to the Greek colonization, would have had a cultural level not too far from the Hellenic. The recent discovery by Davide Tanasi of traces of wine, near Sciacca, dating back to the 4th millennium BC, or about two millennia before the advent of siculi and sicani, evidence that the history of Sicily should be partly rewritten, because the process of vinification concerns a "technological" level not attributable to typically prehistoric cultures. Considering also that in the same period the culture of wine conservation was spreading, as well as wine-making, also in Armenia and in Greece, and that in Sicily there was a large quantity of metal instruments not consistent with the mineral availability of the island. , it is not impossible to hypothesize extra-island commercial relations, therefore a cultural level much more advanced than until recently believed. To get their research funded, prof. Davide Tanasi has had to address the University of South Florida: the Italian university system continues to prove to be at the forefront in enhancing its best minds ...