Valle di Noto amidst the scent of daisies, gerberas and roses for the beautiful Infiorata

It is not a simple floral event. The Infiorata di Noto is an exercise in style, a collective choreography where every petal finds its place with almost maniacal precision, and every detail tells a story. Every year in May in Via Nicolaci, over 400,000 flowers (carnations, daisies, gerberas and roses, complemented by wild flowers, dried herbs, coloured sands, carobs and coffee) are the protagonists of a festival that is more than a greeting to spring. This year, the theme - as traditionally unveiled with a certain theatricality - dialogues with art, culture and identity, interweaving contemporary references and historical memory in a visual narrative that one walks through, slowly, as one does with beautiful things. The 47th edition is a tribute to the languages and avant-gardes that marked the 20th century. From Friday 15 to Sunday 17 May, the master florists work at night, when the rest of the world sleeps and Noto allows itself a parenthesis of silence. It is there that the magic happens: complex designs take shape, sketches become reality and the scent of flowers mingles in the warm May air. In the morning, visitors arrive - curious, refined, inevitably a little in love - and find themselves before a work that has no intention of lasting. And that is precisely its strength. In an age obsessed with permanence, replication and compulsive sharing, the Infiorata remains a radical act: beautiful and destined to disappear.