THE ROOM: the ballroom glows with light, enhanced by a large bronze chandelier and set against the original eighteenth-century floor with pietra pece and limestone inlays. In the past, the floor would have been covered with a waxed surface suitable for dancing. The filet lace curtains billow gently in front of the original windowpanes, while the openings lead out onto the terrace, where an unusual stone aviary once housed parrots and peacocks. The vaulted ceiling, decorated with silver stucco work, was modified in 1900 to mark the marriage of Giuseppe Monelli and Marianna Sortino Trono. It bears the initials of the groom’s parents, Don Giambattista Monelli and Donna Teresa Arezzo di Donnafugata, together with those of their son and daughter-in-law, sealing the family union. The vast room is lined with precious wallpaper woven with gold and furnished with long upholstered sofas. The same delicate silk was also used to create the curtains adorning the balconies and faux doors. Above the sofas and on the console table with griffin feet rise magnificent gold-leaf mirrors, each bearing the family coat of arms at the centre.

TRADITIONS: THE BALL: in nineteenth-century Sicily, dance receptions were not merely occasions for entertainment. They were social rituals, during which alliances, marriages and hierarchies of power were negotiated. While ordinary people danced in town squares, the Sicilian nobility transformed their palazzos into stages of splendour rivalling the courts of Vienna or Paris.

Hospitality was orchestrated with the utmost care, so that every guest in attendance was made to feel like the ‘guest of honour’. These events became veritable ‘competitions of splendour’ between noble houses. Attending a Grand Ball required a great deal of preparation…

AND CUSTOMS: clothing was an immediate sign of social status. For gentlemen (cavalieri), the black tailcoat was obligatory, accompanied by white gloves to avoid direct contact with the skin or dress of their dance partner during the dance. Ladies, meanwhile, wore colourful gowns with voluminous skirts supported by crinolines (until the mid-nineteenth century), made from metres of fine silk, lace and velvet. Even the extremely elegant bridal couple is ready for the Grand Ball: a tail coat for Giuseppe, and for Mariannina, a black silk velvet evening gown embroidered with jet beads, sequins and French Chantilly lace, made by a renowned Milanese dressmaker.