Saint Lucy was born in Syracuse, and the city honours her twice in the same month. On 13 December, after the solemn pontifical mass at 10.15 in the cathedral, the silver statue leaves Piazza Duomo at 15.30; it reaches the church of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro around 22.30, the procession swelling into a river of people along the whole route.
On the 20th the route runs in reverse. It sets off at 15.00 from Piazza Santa Lucia, in the Borgata, pauses at the shrine of the Madonna delle Lacrime, where the statue "meets" Mary, and then at the Umberto I hospital, so that patients too can pray to their patron up close. Fireworks go up over the Umbertino bridge; the statue is back in the cathedral by about eleven at night.
This is the week when the city's emigrants come home: from northern Italy, from the United States, above all from Argentina, home to one of the largest Syracusan communities anywhere. Visit in May instead and you find the feast of the Patronage, known to everyone here as Santa Lucia delle Quaglie.