Palazzo Nicolaci and Via Nicolaci

One block above the corso, Via Nicolaci runs uphill between two rows of palace fronts and ends against the curved façade of a church. Halfway along it, the Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata carries the most photographed piece of carving in the town: six long balconies, each held up by a run of stone brackets shaped into lions, winged horses, sirens, cherubs and grimacing faces.

The detail is high — first floor, four or five metres up — so this is a place for a longer lens and for looking up. From the middle of the lane you get the balconies in profile with the church closing the top of the frame; from directly underneath, the brackets read against the sky as a row of silhouettes.

The lane is narrow and runs roughly north to south, which means it is in reflected light almost all day and never gets the harsh contrast the corso does. That makes it the reliable spot in Noto when the sun is high.

On the third weekend of May the whole street is carpeted in flower petals for the Infiorata, which is worth seeing and impossible to shoot quietly — the rest of the year the lane is one of the emptiest places in town.