The arrival of the Florio family in Sicily dates back to 1799 when, from Bagnara Calabra, the founders of a dynasty that would become one of the major economic powers of our country, arrived in Palermo, taking over an ancient drug and colonial shop in the historic center of the capital Sicilian.
The social and economic rise of the Florios was represented by the largest Italian merchant fleet, with which they also managed postal services between Sicily and the continent, shipbuilding, sulfur extraction, the chemical and metallurgical sector, activities in the spinning mills, from investments in the hotel sector, from wine production, from which the famous Marsala wine was born, and finally from the management of the tuna fisheries of Favignana and Formica, with the associated activity of processing and preserving the caught tuna in oil.
The Florio factory has an area of approximately 40,000 m2. The complex is made up of a set of pavilions mostly communicating with each other. The first body of buildings, already existing when Ignazio Florio Senior purchased the Egadi islands from the Pallavicini marquises, was completed and expanded with the various warehouses used for cooking and processing the tuna to be preserved. The PRETTI, whose name derives from the engineer Eugenio Pretto of Genoa, designer and builder of the building, also belonged to the entire complex of the tuna factory, it was a building used for the processing of sardines, as warehouses and guest quarters for some of the numerous employees of the family.
Closed and abandoned for many years, perhaps too many, it was purchased by a company made up of people who love the island and its history and since 2010 it has become an R.T.A. of only 16 suites.
Let the story begin.....