Sicilian Folk Figure. Born to Salvatore La Lomia and Anna Giudice in Canicattì, Agostino La Lomia was the last Sicilian 'Gattopardo' who as Duke of Giantonina and Baron of Renda, Carbuscia and Torrazze, 'signore' of Giantonina and lay abbot of the abbey of Giacchetto, vice president of the Banco di Credito Siciliano and commander of the Crown of Italy, loved good life and always saw that he was present in large mundane events. A bizarre man, famous for his detailed anecdotes which he recited with great passion, he was known for his jokes and orations dedicated mostly to simple things and animals, leading to have his name frequently appearing in newspapers following particular unusual events such as the celebration of the funeral of his cat "S.E. il Referendario Paolo Annarino", who having originally belonged to Father Paolo Meli, parish priest of San Domenico of Catania, upon the priest's death it was left under the care of La Lomia who soon had him raised to the nobility rank as 'referendary' of the kingdom of the island of Capo La Croce on which shores he had him buried with honors upon his death after being struck by an automobile. His blackbird was likewise invested with the highest of appreciations: he was not only hailed as 'don Turiddu Capra, duca di Santa Flavia e Merlo' but also held the title of 'monsignore' and had his own visiting card reading «Don Turiddu Capra - Merlo acquatico - Duca di Santa Flavia - Via Cattaneo 50, tel. 51969, Canicattì». Furthermore, he had reserved entirely all for itself a room complete with a bath at the luxurious Hotel San Domenico of Taormina. Along with his cat, the blackbird was inseparable from his master. He not only accompanied him while playing "Vitti' na crozza" with his guitar, but always occupied a place of honor beside the Baron, including public events. The blackbird never left its patron's side and like his master, was sensitive to feminine charm. He would not however participate in religious activities and the Baron was forced therefore to go without him to church and to withdraw by himself while seeking meditation or to recite his prayers, which he did with profound devotion, a passion he received perhaps from his saintly uncle, Father Giocchino La Lomia of the Capuchin Fathers, and which he would especially seek before and after his mundane encounters with the most famous and most beautiful of women. Proclaiming the said island of Capo La Croce capital of the kingdom of Sicily, for which he also formed a constitution, he became a member of the 'Accademia del Parnaso' of Canicattì. Capable of organizing a show wherever he went, for his participation in Sunday mass La Lomia had a large wicker chair carried for him by his servants from his palace to San Domenico, at the entrance of which he would carry the chair himself over his head and after walking with it through the nave would place it at the foot of the altar and after theatrically kissing the floor would sit down satisfied. A deeply superstitious man who changed the silk handkerchief in his breast pocket depending on his mood, his most famous event however remains the funeral he gave in his honor while still alive: the pretended last tribute held in Canicattì started with wine drinking and the distribution of bread and almonds, ending with La Lomia toasting to death and kneeling to the floor to kiss his future tomb. His real funeral was supposed in accordance to the Baron's wishes to be held by sixteen undertakers of international fame, accompanied by a notary with a curved hand, an engineer with a pickaxe and a politician with a fork. Like Pirandello, he also expressed the wish to be placed naked in the coffin and ordered that forty bags of earth, a sign of his many feuds were to placed on the slab ceiling his vault. The band of Acireale had to play along the cortege along which waiters were to distribute trays of ice cream to the participants. Having lost his palace at Piazza Politeama, Palermo, to debts, the Baron died only a year after the celebration of his mock funeral, in solitude in Catania. The reality of his last tribute proved however to be quite different and rather sad from what he had desired. With the mass held at San Domenico on a cold afternoon, fifty carriages and a handful of people were present for the last salute with the interment itself at his native Canicattì taking place in silence and without any of the supposed festivities held, shrouded in such silence and sense of forgetfulness that compared to his cat, the latter had received a much more dignified and respectable funeral.