Social Program

Some details of social events at the conferences can be found below – more details will be provided as they become available.

Tuesday 18 June – Norman Palace

The Palazzo dei Normanni, the Royal Palace of Palermo, was the seat of the Kings of Sicily during the Norman domination. The building is the oldest royal residence in Europe, the home of the rulers of the Kingdom of Sicily and imperial seat with Frederick II and Conrad IV the Svevian. The palace stands in what is the highest point of the ancient center of the city, just above the first Punic settlements, whose remains can still be found in the basement. The palace contains the Cappella Palatina, the best example of the Arab-Norman-Byzantine style that prevailed in the 12th-century Sicily. The wonderful mosaics, the wooden roof, elaborately fretted and painted, and the marble incrustation of the lower part of the walls and the floor are very fine. The wooden roof is considered the first and oldest piece of Islamic art in the wolrd. The palace is today the seat of the Sicilian Parliament and Sicilian Regional Assembly. The Sicilian Parlament is the oldest in the wolrd (jointly, with Island and orl iland Fare Oer). Indeed, the first meeting (assise) was convene by the King Ruggero in 1130.

18:00-22:00 Foyer and Gardens of the Royal Palace – Royal Palace visit, Ice-breaker & Registration

Thursday 20 June – Monreale Cathedral

Monreale Cathedral (Italian: Cattedrale di Santa Maria Nuova di Monreale; Duomo di Monreale) is a Catholic church in Monreale, Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. One of the greatest existent examples of Norman architecture, it was begun in 1174 by William II of Sicily. In 1182 the church, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, was, by a bull of Pope Lucius III, elevated to the rank of a metropolitan cathedral as the seat of the diocese of Monreale, which was elevated to the Archdiocese of Monreale in 1183. Since 2015 it has been part of the Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church is a national monument of Italy and one of the most important attractions of Sicily. Its size is 102 meters (335′) long and 40 meters (131′) wide.

19:00-23:00 Monreale Cathedral – Gala Dinner & IWA Ceremony Awards

Wednesday 21 June – Teatro Massimo

The Teatro Massimo is not only the largest theatre in Italy but also one of the largest in Europe. This imposing structure with its neoclassical exterior stands on the site of a church and a monastery, demolished at the end of the 1800’s. The façade resembles a classic temple. A regal flight of steps leads up to a gabled vestibule supported by six Corinthian tuff columns on a podium with a monumental staircase flanked by two bronze lions ridden by the allegorical representations of Melody and Opera. Golden stuccoes, wooden decorations, velvet and glass: the horseshoe-shaped auditorium hosts up to up to 1300 people in the stalls, five floors of boxes and a gallery. Acoustically perfect, it is dominated by the so-called “Symbolic wheel” that forms its ceiling. The wheel resembles a wide flower with eleven petals. Each of them is part of the original cooling system of the theatre, as they can be opened to let the hot air flow out.

20:00-23:00 Teatro Massimo – Opera show “Lady, Be Good” and Italian dinner