The Florio family built Sicily's largest business group and lost all of it to the banks and the state by 1935

Paolo Florio left Calabria for Palermo in 1799 and opened a spice shop. His son Vincenzo founded a Marsala winery in the 1830s and a steamship line in 1861. When Vincenzo died in 1868 his estate was worth over 12 million lire. His son Ignazio bought the islands of Favignana and Formica and their tuna fisheries in 1874 and merged the shipping line into Navigazione Generale Italiana in 1881. Ignazio Jr. inherited in 1891 and married Franca Jacona di San Giuliano in 1893. In autumn 1908 the debts became public: 12 million lire to redeem their shipping shares and 8 million more falling due, against income of 1.2 million a year. In 1909 Ignazio turned down a Bank of Italy rescue consortium and sold the tuna catch to the Genoese Parodi and Lavagetto for six years. By 1915 the shipping shares had gone to Banca Commerciale, the shipyard to Piaggio and the Marsala plants to SAVI. In May 1934 Ignazio wrote: "I no longer see how I can save myself." The family holding company was liquidated in 1934, and the state's IRI absorbed a loss of about 40 million lire. In spring 1935 Franca's jewels were auctioned in Rome for the bank. The Parodi took the tuna works in 1938. Franca died without means on 10 November 1950. In 2018 Rocco Forte Hotels bought Villa Igiea at auction for 25 million euros. In 2026 the Favignana works is a museum owned by the Sicilian region.