Alexander Hood, 5th Duke of Bronte

La Falconara, Taormina, built c. 1908-11 by the 5th Duke, where he entertained the British royal family in April 1925

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.[9] In 1903 he purchased additional land in Taormina, on which he built a large villa called "La Falconara" (aliter "Villa Nelson"), still under construction at the time of the 1908 Messina earthquake.[10][11] The entrepreneur Maricchiolo laid the first stone.[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).

In April 1925 the 5th Duke entertained the British royal family at La Falconara, as is memorialised by a white marble tablet on a garden wall inscribed: "Their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary with TRH Prince George and Princess Victoria honoured this house and garden with a visit on 4th April 1925".[15] An adjoining tablet records the visit 50 years later by Princess Margaret, in August 1975.[16] The villa was sold by his descendants on April 27, 1948 to Gaetano Marzotto, Count Marzotto (d.1972),[3][17][18] of Valdagno near Venice,[19] one of Italy's leading textile manufacturers (see Marzotto Group)[20] and wine-makers,[21] founder of the Jolly Hotels chain and father of the racing driver Gianni Marzotto. Its name was then changed to Villa Marzotto,[22] until its sale in 1973. It was offered for sale in 2020 for 15 million Euros, fully furnished with antique contents which by law must be kept intact.

He was made a Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy.[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. This resulted from a complaint by his aunt Jane Sarah Hood (Lady Hotham) when visiting with his father in 1888, that no monument existed, to which the Duke replied in jest that Wren's epitaph in St Paul's Cathedral states Si monumentum requiris circumspice[25] ("if you seek his monument look around you"). Lady Hotham promptly sent him the requisite funds, with which he erected the monument. He erected another Celtic cross in the ducal cemetery at Maniace, on the grave of his close friend and frequent visitor the "Celtic" poet William Sharp (d.1905), who died at Maniace, author of Through Nelson's Duchy (1903).[26]

In 1905 in memory of his late father he erected a 40 foot high stone obelisk on Serra Mergo, at about 5,000 feet above sea level, the highest point of Serra Spina in the Nebrodi Mountains. Known locally as the Obelisco di Nelson (sic), it is situated 7.26 km due north of Castello di Maniace, close to the northern edge of the estate.[27] It is today in a poor state of repair and verging on dilapidation. 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. Natus fuit 23 Dicembris, 1814. Obit 4 Junii, 1904. 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. He was born on 23 December 1814, he died on 4 June 1904. His son, moved by love, erected this sign in 1905").