The guided tour of Scicli will make you discover a small town rich in artistic and landscape beauties that make the Val di Noto area unique, recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. We start from the most beautiful church, the Church of Saint Bartolomeo, truly spectacular in Baroque and Rococo style set in the rock; around the church the view is similar to the Stones of Matera with many houses carved into the rock where you can see the typical cave houses.
Entering the church that resisted the terrible earthquake of 1693, you can admire the magnificent stuccos, frescoes, statues and sculptures that make it a true jewel of art; to decorate the church we find a precious wooden nativity scene from the 18th-century Neapolitan school.
From here we walk through the historic centre and one of the most elegant and famous streets of Scicli, Via Penna, with its beautiful noble palaces in Baroque style and the Ancient Cartia Pharmacy, dating from the early 1900s, with its precious original wooden furniture and Liberty-style decorations. The pharmacy was also used for scenes in the Inspector Montalbano TV series.
Near we can admire one of the most beautiful buildings of the Sicilian Baroque, Beneventano Palace, decorated with statues carved in stone, Moor's heads and balconies with typically Baroque masks. We continue our guided tour returning to the high street and into the heart of the historic centre where the Town Hall has become one of the most iconic buildings in the town. Built on an ancient Benedictine monastery, it became popular thanks to the TV series Inspector Montalbano, a personality created by the writer Andrea Camilleri, in which it takes the form of the Vigata Commissariat and which in recent years has attracted many fans of the series.
Adjacent to the Town Hall we visit another beautiful Baroque church of Scicli, the Church of Saint Giovanni Evangelista, full of columns and stuccoes and famous for a curious painting from Spain of Christ of Burgos, also called Christ in a skirt because Christ is represented on the cross with a curious white dress that looks like a skirt, an 18th century iconography that is a real rarity for Italy.
The guided tour ends by discovering other panoramic views of the historic centre such as the old river that crossed it and the shops of local artisans.
