Franca Florio, 150 years of charm in a book

THEn journey with the readers of iO Donna, following in Palermo the footsteps of the Florios, the “lions of Sicily”we met the doctor and writer Salvatore Requirez, great expert on Sicilian stories, who studied the parable for a long time of this powerful dynasty, from enormous wealth to ruin.

Requirez, who in life is an important healthcare manager, he dedicated ten books to the Florios, telling before others his successes, entrepreneurial impulses and passions, from car racing to ceramics, from works of art to yachts. Of all the characters of the Palermo empire, with its postal ships, its tuna traps, its mines, it emerges one hundred and fifty years from birth (precisely in December 1873) the figure of Donna Francawhich still exerts immense fascination and is today remembered in a commemorative stamp.

Through the eyes of Franca Florio

By Franca Iacona of San Giuliano, Requirez knows everything. He’s the one who Through Franca’s eyes (New Ipsa) he “rewrites” the diaries in the first person, giving us the secret life of the woman that Kaiser Wilhelm II defined as “the star of Italy” and D’Annunzio “the only one”, and of her long marriage with Ignazio Florio jr, from ‘young love at the end of everything.

Doctor Requirez, how did this portrait of you, which we could define as “Franca’s version”, come about?
Just as a tribute to her, I wanted to make her truly, completely known. As emerges from the documents, from her diaries of the various phases of her life that I had the opportunity to read, study, interpret. It is not right to confine Donna Franca to the glitter of the Belle Époque, because the real important factor in this woman’s life was pain: the experience of losing three children in a few months and, then, falling from boundless wealth into the ranks of absolute poverty. Which she faced with great dignity, I would say with surprising resilience.

Are Franca’s eyes those of a protagonist? Or a witness?
Of a witness. That she had no right in any of the decisions that her husband made… And fifty percent of those decisions were excuses that Ignazio made to leave and go do who knows what: Franca was completely unaware of it.. She didn’t realize the collapse until after the fact, when one day he told her that they had to abandon the Olivella “palace”. But, despite the perception of economic difficulties, Franca he continued a lifestyle that was no longer within his reach, because he had built an image that was no longer only in his head, but in that of the people of Palermo, the Italians and even the rulers of Europe: everyone saw her as the representative of an extraordinary aesthetic beauty and an economic power whose decline was not to be made known.

I was interested in psychological journey of a girl who comes from a difficult childhood, poor despite her noble title. Franca boasts four quarters of blue blood, but with her family she lives in rent in via Noce, in Palermo. Then, as a teenager, she sees the eyes of the most coveted party in Italy on her, which projects her towards a future of hope, of redemption, of expectations which only in the stories of his ancestors had he been able to mature. This perspective of her life marks her forever: she will defend to the bitter end the awareness of being representative of an era, of a way of life, of an elegance that aimed at the admiration of her entire context. It is evident in her diaries, for the reconstruction of which I had two special sources: Costanza Afan de Rivera Costaguti, niece of Ignazio and Franca Florio as daughter of Giulia (fifth daughter of the couple), a person dear to me, and Silvana Paladino, wife of Cecè, heir of Vincenzo Florio.

Between queens and emperors

But who really was Ignazio Florio jr who married Franca? A serial traitor, we would say today, concerned only with living to the fullest, and not suited to running a great economic empire?
In reality, the much maligned Ignazio Florio jr had the ideas of a great financier, which however he did not know how to put into practice. He was young and handsome, he wanted to enjoy life to the full. He had style, he loved women, gaming, sport, offshore sailing… he bought, at the end of the nineteenth century, the two largest yachts in the world: the Sultana and the Aegusa. The father and mother had been among the five Italians invited to Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, in addition to the king and the Court. What idea of ​​greatness can a man of this kind have? His capital mistake was to consider the family wealth inexhaustible, not even managing household expenses. Villas, receptions, furnishings… And what villas: in the “Quattro pizzi” one he came to stay to treat tuberculosis the Tsar of Russia with his daughter Alexandra… Furthermore, you cannot divide yourself between managing companies and three-month long journeys, you have to choose, any manager knows this but Ignazio never made the decision and relied on collaborators inherited from his father who, having sensed the difficulties of the international market, thought of safeguarding their properties rather than his. And although he owned shares that were extraordinarily prevalent compared to those of the other shareholders, he managed to consume in a year figures higher than those he was entitled to in dividends (…). The beginning of the end.

Salvatore Requirez during the meeting with iO Donna travellers, in Palermo.

Scenes from a wedding

Was it still love with Franca?
A love that is too youthful. When they met she was 16, he wasn’t even 19. They weren’t mature and, above all, they had different personalities. Differences which then, over time, became accentuated. She, among other things, after the death of her son “Baby Boy”, went in and out of depression… Her last great, humiliating betrayal was with Vera Arrivabene, Princess Papadopoli. Cultured woman, in contact with the best of Central European culture in Venice. Not very smiling, different from Ignazio’s other lovers. Despite being the mother of two children, Vera abandoned her husband, who challenged Florio to a duel due to the scandal. Vera went to live with him, who then left Franca, but never completely…

Betrayals, absences, tears. “Baby Boy”, the last Ignatius, was the only male heir who was to carry on the family surname. Franca must have been overcome by guilt…
Franca Florio had to absorb terrible blows and devastating losses. The little Ignazio passed away while she was playing cards at the Rothschilds’ house in Monte Carlo: they called her from the hotel with the terrible news that the child was dying… In my book I tried to tell those moments, what she thought when she put the papers down… A curse? A nemesis? Franca took refuge in the palace in Favignana to soothe her desperation and pain. All the pain, even that for Giovanna, the eldest daughter who died of tuberculosis, and for Giacobina, born prematurely. The three children are buried in the monumental cemetery of Santa Maria di Gesù, here in Palermowhich is worth a visit even just for the splendid sculpture of the Lion in front of the Florio Chapel.

It is said that Franca could not even accept the loss of beauty, even undergoing an invasive treatment such as “porcelain” of the face…
As a doctor I tell you that it is not possible to achieve alignment of the epidermal surface through that type of scraping and then the distension of an enamel. Maybe Franca used a very heavy makeup, almost like a greasepaint, to hide wrinkles.

However, the immense value of the jewels is not a legend.

At all! There were 111 of them, they were stolen, found, deposited for a long time at the Cassa di Risparmio Vittorio Emanuele in Rome, then put up for auction in 1935. Until the end, for a special occasion, Franca Florio could collect them, wear them and return them, such was the relationship of trust. Hers. His In terms of length, number and caliber of pearls, the iconic necklace was superior to that of Queen Helena, therefore Franca, who had been a court lady since 1902, felt a certain embarrassment in wearing it during official ceremonies, such as the baptism of princes. She was sacrificed last.

Why did Franca, and perhaps she alone, become a myth?

Because it embodies a beautiful period of our city, for the supreme elegance, for the patronage, for the great minds to which the Florios gave space, educating them in beauty. They asked for the best of everything, think of the Targa Florio designed by Laliqueto the paintings of Villa Igiea, to the Florio casino… Even if I then wonder if in Sicily can be called the Belle Époque: in the 1901 census, Palermo was still, among the large cities of Italy, the first for unemployment and emigration, the second for infant mortality, the penultimate for average income. And it still didn’t have a hospital worthy of the name. The Palermo capital of Art Nouveau that looked to Paris also existed, of course, but for the benefit of the moneyed bourgeoisie and the aristocracy.

A hortus conclusus, the kingdom of Franca.

PS. These questions & answers return part of the meeting between Salvatore Requirez and the group of iO Donna travelers at the Grand Hotel et Des Palmes, last October 28th, in Palermo.

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