Ever since I moved to Sicily, the Florio family has been the most fascinating part of the island’s modern history for me. A family of entrepreneurs with no title and no great fortune, who turned 19th-century Palermo into one of the richest and most modern cities in the Mediterranean.
They were not Sicilians. The family came from Calabria and opened a drogheria — a spice shop. They were newcomers, merchants with neither noble titles nor great wealth. Outsiders. The first turning point came thanks to malaria and quinine. At the time, malaria was the city’s most widespread disease, and the first generation of the Florio family became the leading sellers of quinine, the main treatment for it. People had little choice but to buy it from the Florio shop. That was where the family’s first real money came from.
Today, only one Florio property remains in Palermo: the Florio tonnara. For a time, it was also the home of the last of the famous Florio generations. Inside, you can see a wooden panel with the lion — the symbol of the Florio family. The lion is weak and drinking water beside quinine trees. A lion that symbolizes dignity and resilience, surviving despite exhaustion, just like the Florio family. And, of course, beside the quinine tree, where it all began.
A thick novel has been written about the Florio family, and a TV series has been made, so I won’t even try to retell their story. I’ll simply mention what fascinates me most. They built their business from nothing. Yet their achievements are still with us today. Take tuna in olive oil, for example. No, the Florios didn’t invent it. Until the middle of the 19th century, tuna was simply salted. Then a crisis came — people became afraid to eat salted tuna because of the risk of scurvy, and the Florios began producing tuna preserved in olive oil. Books and guided tours say he remembered how his grandmother used to preserve tuna. There are different versions of this story. But one thing is certain: the tuna in olive oil we know today might never have become so popular without the Florios. Marsala wine, tuna, salt, sulphur, textiles and ceramics, a bank, and even a shipping company — all of this was the work of just two generations of the Florio family.
They owned a remarkable amount of property in Palermo and the surrounding area. The old aristocracy wanted nothing to do with merchant families like the Florios and openly despised both them and their wealth. But whenever they needed money, they had no choice but to turn to the Florios. They mortgaged their palaces and businesses, or simply sold them. All while continuing to look down on them.
I’ll be writing about the Florios’ individual achievements in future articles, but I hope I’ve managed to explain who Palermo’s Florios were. To me, they are the family that made Sicily wealthy and successful.