The Taorminese lawyer and journalist Dino Papale, whose maternal grandfather was Cesare Acrosso (1898-1990) (Podesta of Taormina, nephew and heir of Salvatore Cacciola),[13] who resides in the former Trevelyan palazzo in Via Teatro Greco,[14] wrote a book published in 1995 called Taormina Segreta - La Belle Epoque 1876-1914, in which he claims that the young Florence was expelled by Queen Victoria from the English royal court and high-society, due to an affair she supposedly had with Prince Edward, the queen's eldest son and the future King Edward VII.

[15] In 1890 she purchased the Isola Bella, a small rocky island below the town of Taormina, attached to the mainland by a narrow sandy path, on which she built a house and established a garden.

There she acquired several parcels of land on the steep hillside below the Via Bagnoli Croce down to Giardini on the coast, and below the famous Hotel Timeo, where she had first resided in Taormina.

Again she imported non-native plants, but the garden is most noteworthy for the extraordinary and eclectic follies constructed from different kinds of stone, cloth, brick, pipes and other architectural salvage.

[23] This unique garden is the second biggest tourist attraction in Taormina after the Greek Theatre and, together with the Isola Bella, receives thousands of visitors a year.

dogs, goats, parrots, peacocks, pigeons, doves, canaries and all other birds of whatever description shall be maintained in health and comfort, with all care and affection, as they have been kept in my lifetime, and that they shall not suffer in any respect.

[24] In 1890 she married Professor Salvatore Cacciola (d.1926),[25] a medical doctor and well-known resident of Taormina who served for many years as its mayor (sindaco),[26] whom she had met seeking veterinary advice due to her "soft heart for stray dogs".

[30] Her husband's heir was his nephew Cesare Acrosso (1898-1990), a lawyer and the last podestà of Taormina who due to his office was imprisoned by the British for 18 months in 1943 on the re-taking of Sicily.