[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'.

[1][5] Vincenzo Florio Sr. immediately set a much faster pace in the family business, considerably expanding the scope of his activities well beyond the drug and spice shop.

[1] After the death of his father, in 1868, he resolved the problems related to the division of inheritance that could have resulted in the liquidation of the flourishing enterprise.

[8] With the merger of the Florio fleet into the Navigazione Generale Italiana when The New York Times described the Florios as the "merchant princes of Europe",[9] the family was part of the narrow elite of the great Italian entrepreneurs and was at the top of the international high-society, a reference point in Palermo not only for the high aristocracy, but also for the rulers who increasingly visited the city in the second half of the 19th century.

He acted as a patron of the arts in Palermo, financing and monitoring the progress of various projects and making the Sicilian city an important meeting point for the international jet set of the time.

From the highs during the belle époque, with the splendours of the family and the triumphs of Ignazio's beautiful wife, the mythical Franca Florio, sung about by poets and immortalised by the most prestigious artists of the time.

To the lows of the bankruptcy of the family's immense economic empire, which between revivals and relapses would slowly wear away between 1908 and 1935, finally leaving them in the most squalid and painful misery.

His winery was in between the ones of John Woodhouse and Benjamin Ingham (1784-1861), the original British pioneers in the Marsala wine trade.

[6] Historians attribute Vincenzo Florio with introducing in Sicily the system of fishing with fixed nets and conservation under oil, thus increasing his trade and financial wealth.

[20] In 1881, Ignazio Florio Sr. merged with the Rubattino company in Genoa, giving rise to the Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI), which operated a line on New York City.

The formal owner was Carlo Di Rudinì, the son of the former prime minister of Italy Antonio Di Rudinì, but the main shareholder and financier was Ignazio Florio Jr.[2] The political direction of the newspaper was generally republican and progressive, representing the Sicilian entrepreneurial middle class.

[23] The first Targa Florio covered 277 miles through multiple hairpin curves on treacherous mountain roads where severe changes in climate frequently occurred and racers even faced bandits and irate shepherds.

[24] In 2019, Stefania Auci wrote an historical novel about the family, The Florios of Sicily (Italian: I leoni di Sicilia), which was a surprise best seller, selling over one million copies and being released in 35 countries.

[26] A streaming series adaption of Auci’s novel titled The Lions of Sicily was announced in 2022; produced by Disney+ and directed by Paolo Genovese, it stars Michele Riondino, Miriam Leone, Donatella Finocchiaro and Vinicio Marchioni.