The main art gallery and museum of Acireale, housed in the building of the Accademia degli Zelanti e dei Dafnici, a learned society founded in 1671 that is still in operation — one of the oldest in Sicily. The name "Zelanti" (the zealous ones) tells you something about the character of the institution.
The collection includes Sicilian paintings from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, archaeological finds from the surrounding area, coins, manuscripts, and a natural history section. It is not a world-class museum, but it is a good local one, and the building itself — with its library of rare books and manuscripts — is worth seeing. Entry is inexpensive and it is almost never crowded.