A long way from home

Here in Sicily I’m a long way from home in Australia. This plant is also a long way from its home. I think it’s Ceiba speciosa or Floss Silk Tree which grows naturally in central and southern South America. 

In Sicily, I first noticed it growing in the courtyard of Oratorio del Rosario in Palermo. There it was around 15 m or more high with a thick trunk with quite green bark and prominent thorns growing directly out of the woody trunk. And flamboyant flowers somewhat like a hibiscus. Today I saw it again in the garden of the Hotel Tritone in Lipari in the Aeolian Islands, where I was able to photograph the flowers from an upper storey window.

The Wikipedia article I linked above mentions that Ceiba is in the Malvaceae family of plants. So are hibiscus - hence the similarity of the flowers.