The Florio family is an Italian family of industrial tradition that was the protagonist of the period of the so-called Belle Epoque. The history of the family, of Calabrian origins, took place in the rich Palermo of the years between the nineteenth and twentieth century.
Senator Vincenzo Florio, born in Bagnara in 1799 and moved to a thriving age in Palermo at his father's flourishing grocery store, undertook numerous industrial initiatives, including that of the Marsala wines, and gave life to large shipping companies. He also had many interests in the field of sulfur with the "Anglo-Sicilian Sulfur Company". He died in Palermo in 1868.
On the death of Vincenzo in 1868, his son Ignazio, Senior (Palermo 1838 - 1891) succeeded in managing his father's industry, who with great skill and financial resources increased and increased the turnover of the business created and sent forward by his father. Ignazio in 1874 bought the islands of Favignana and Formica and later became a senator of the Kingdom of Italy. On this island he organized a large tonnara with a preservation plant (Tonnara di Favignana), experimenting with a new production method. In fact, instead of producing tuna in salt as the custom of the time, it was prepared for the first time the conservation of tuna in oil and the relative canning in the milk. The company was able to give work to a large number of workers and to have its products affirmed in the world.