Carlo di florio biography

Sicilian entrepreneurial family

For the surname, see Florio (surname).

The Florio family was a prominent entrepreneurial Italian family who started many lucrative activities in Sicily involving the export of Sicilian products (such as Marsala wine) in the 19th century, in some ways redeeming Sicily from feudal immobility.^[1] The family extended its interests to shipping, shipbuilding, fisheries, mining, metallurgy and ceramics.^[2] The Florio economic dynasty was one of the wealthiest Italian families during the late 19th century.^[1] In the heyday of the Florio business empire reportedly some 16,000 people depended on the family, and the press sometimes referred to Palermo as 'Floriopolis'.^[3]

Rise and decline

First generation: The beginning

The Florio family originally came from Bagnara, a town in the province of Calabria.

Paolo Florio (1772-1807) saw no future in his hometown after an earthquake in 1783 and left