About The Lions of Sicily
The Lions of Sicily (I Leoni di Sicilia) is a sweeping Italian period saga that premiered on Disney+ in 2023, adapted from Stefania Auci's best-selling novel about the real-life Florio dynasty. Spanning the turbulent 19th century, it charts the family's improbable climb from humble shopkeepers who arrive in Palermo with little more than ambition to one of Sicily's wealthiest and most powerful merchant houses. Directed by Paolo Genovese, the series treats the island itself as a leading character, its harbors, markets, and aristocratic salons forming the backdrop to a story of relentless self-invention.
At the heart of the saga is Vincenzo Florio, played by Michele Riondino, a man consumed by an insatiable hunger for redemption and an entrepreneurial vision that outpaces the rigid social order around him. His path is shaped first by his father Paolo and then by his scandalous, defining bond with Giulia Portalupi, a fiercely independent Milanese woman who refuses the narrow place society reserves for her. Their love, conducted in open defiance of convention, becomes both the family's vulnerability and the source of its enduring strength.
Across eight episodes the series braids commerce and passion, ambition and rivalry, into a single propulsive arc. The Florios fight off scornful aristocrats, ruthless competitors, and their own internal fractures as they build an empire on sulphur, spices, tuna, and Marsala wine. Praised for its lavish costuming, its handsome production design, and the central performances, The Lions of Sicily stands as one of Disney+'s most ambitious Italian originals, a clean, emotionally charged portrait of a family willing to risk everything to claim a future on its own terms.
