Alexander Hood, 5th Duke of Bronte

In his book The Duchy of Bronte (1924) he speaks of his father's great generosity in entrusting him with his Sicilian estate, and his constant reply when asked for advice: "I leave it to you, I know you'll do your best".

In 1867, his grandmother Charlotte Hood, 3rd Duchess of Bronte, had purchased land at Taormina, on the coast 40 miles east of Maniace, in the Contrada Sant Leo.

[12][13] Situated at 99 Via Luigi Pirandello, on the steep hillside 400 yards below (south of) the Teatro Greco, it comprises 20 rooms, including 8 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and 50,000 square metres (c. 12 acres) of gardens and greenery.

With his close friend and frequent guest the writer Robert Hichens he helped to further establish Taormina (like Capri) as a "holiday resort for wealthy homosexuals from Northern Europe".

[14] That reputation had been initiated by the German photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856–1931), who first visited Taormina in the 1870s, where he subsequently lived and died, together with other British expatriots such as the artist Robert Hawthorn Kitson (1873–1947)[12] and Colonel Thomas Shaw-Hellier (1836–1910).

[23] In the inner courtyard at Castello di Maniace he erected in 1891[24] a large Ionian or Celtic cross, made to his own design of local black lava from Mount Etna and sculpted locally, in memory of Admiral Lord Nelson and inscribed on the base Heroi Immortali Nili ("To the immortal hero of the Nile"), the Battle of the Nile having particular significance in the saving of the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples from Napoleonic conquest.

On the base is a white marble stone tablet he inscribed in Latin as follows (today much worn away by weather):[5] Memoriae perenni Alexandri Nelson IV.

Dux Brontis, Vìcecomitis Bridport, qui in haec amoena rura quae emerito hoereditate acceperuit praeclaro parente Heroe Immortali Nili humanitatis et progressus cultum invexit.

Filius amore impulsus hoc signum posuit 1905 ("To the ever-lasting memory of Alexander Nelson, 4th Duke of Bronte, Viscount Bridport, who into this delightful countryside, which he had received by meritorious inheritance from his illustrious ancestor the Immortal Hero of the Nile, brought a reverence of humanity and progress.

[28] He died unmarried on 1 June 1937 at La Falconara in Taormina, Sicily,[4] aged 82[29] and was initially buried in the garden of the villa, next to his sister Rosa Penelope Hood (1852–1922).