Maybe it’s casual, but maybe not: south-east. As if the reasoning of the South and the East of the world could find a home here that offers shelter to each of them. A place where this reasoning can be aired and where someone, it is hoped, will be inclined to hear them. The Province of Ragusa, after having been declared Heritage of Mankind by Unesco, puts itself forwards as a clearing house of rights, ideas, and disparate languages that crisscross from the different shores of the Mediterranean. It should also be borne in mind, that eastern Sicily, bounded by the river valleys of the Pollina on the northern side and the Salso or Southern Imera on the southern side includes the Nebrodi, Peloritani, Etna, Erei and Hyblaean mountain groups in this area and has water on three sides, namely the Tyrrhenian, Ionian and African seas.

It is the most typically Siculan-Greek part of Sicily and also the part most exposed to the Mediterranean, the main reason for the central nature mentioned above and for the centuries of migratory settlement For this reason this area has always represented tradition, sea, history, and makes the whole district a fascinating itinerary of study, in terms of characteristics, very similar to the wider and equally unique eastern Sicily and the island as a whole.

In fact, Sicily has always been the crossroads of peoples and civilizations and the symbol of the dialectics and the cohabitation of diverse cultures, it appeared the ideal place to promote and follow the Euro-Mediterranean routes, to be witness to the reopening of a cultural dialogue, to strengthen the ties in the Mediterranean and so favour the process of peace.
Sicily is also the bithplace of some of the greatest Italian writers, including Giovanni Verga, Luigi Pirandello, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Leonardo Sciascia, Gesualdo Bufalino, Vittorini and, today, Andrea Camilleri.

The project therefore represents the natural evolution of a Euro-Mediterranean Cultural Partnership as recommended at the end of the Cultural Heritage Interregional Partnership in the Mediterranean Workshop that was held in Palermo in November 2003, organized by the Region of Sicily in the context of the regional activities of the EU Italian Presidency Semester.

Returning to the motivations of choice that led to uniting the idea of the Festival to the area of the Val di Noto, it is certainly important to mention the “Unesco” award received by the Province of Ragusa in 2002: the Val di Noto was, in fact, recognised by Unesco as World Heritage of Mankind.

The criteria of choice of cultural district were based above all on the exceptional testimony to the exuberant genius of the art and architecture of the late-Baroque.
The towns of the Val di Noto are the apogee and the greatest flowering of Baroque art in Europe as stated before when analysing the fragmented history of this corner of Sicily.

As stated, the exceptional quality of the art and architecture of the late-Baroque of the Val di Noto lies in its geographical and chronological homogeneity just as in its rebuilding, the result of the terrible 1693 earthquake.
The eight towns of the cultural district of the south-east typify the models of urban construction of this region, constantly menaced by the risk of earthquakes and eruption of the Etna volcano.