A nice cocktail buffet will be served in the AMERICAN BAR of Grand Hotel Excelsior at 7:00 pm

Palazzo Biscari is likely the most beautiful secular building in Catania. It was erected after the earthquake in 1693, and was at its height some sixty years later when Ignazio Biscari - a man with an abiding passion for art, literature and archaeology, promoter of many of the excavations at the area - pushed for a museum of archaeology to be set up within it. The South wing of the palace shows a rich decoration of figures and volutes, cherubs and racemes, that fill the window frames along the long terrace relieving the sombreness of the dark façade. The entrance of the palace, on via Museo Biscari, consists of a rich portal that leads into a courtyard with a fine stairway. On the first floor are the main reception rooms. In the back is a splendid Salon with frescoes by Sebastiano Lo Monaco and enriched with stuccoes, gilded mouldings and mirrors. The centre of the ceiling opens out into an oval dome with gallery, behind which musicians once played, conceived as if the music would descend from the heaven. The fresco portrays the Triumph of the Family celebrated by the council of the Gods. A lovely spiral staircase situated in the gallery next to the hall provides access to the little platform. From the gallery the south terrace of the building can be admired.

Departure from Grand Hotel Excelsior at 7:15 pm.

Before dinner from the terrace of Palazzo Biscari you will enjoy a splendid view of the great fireworks show held in Piazza Duomo for the first day of celebration of St. Agatha's festivities, Catania's most stirring religious feast dedicated to the city's holy patron, the young martyr Agatha.

The participants who would like to join are kindly invited to register on site at the Conference Secretariat. Departure from Grand Hotel Excelsior at 9:00 am.

The conference overlaps with the festivities in honour of St. Agatha, the Patron of the City of Catania: three days of cult, devotion, folklore, and tradition, that stand almost alone in the world. During those intense days, Catania turns into one and only crowd marching behind the Patron. The 4th and 5th of February stand out among the three days of festivities, when St. Agatha passes through the neighborhoods on her silver carriage (Catanians call it, specifically, "fercolo" or, more commonly, "vara").