Watch The Lions of Sicily (2023) online

The Lions of Sicily is an Italian-American TV series which, taken from the novels by Stefania Auci, narrates the events of the Florios, a family of Calabrian shipowners and entrepreneurs who in nineteenth-century Sicily became one of the richest and most influential in Italy.
Written by Ludovica Rampoldi and Stefano Sardo and directed by Paolo Genovese (Perfect Strangers), the historical drama begins the story with the brothers Paolo and Ignazio Florio (played by Vinicio Marchioni and Paolo Briguglia), two small spice traders who have escaped from a Calabria anchored to the past and looking for social redemption. Determined to reach higher than everyone else, to be the richest and most powerful, in Palermo, Paolo and Ignazio make their spice shop in via dei Materassai the best in the city, then starting various other businesses. And when Vincenzo (Michele Riondino), Paolo's son, takes over Casa Florio, the momentum continues. With his revolutionary ideas, Vincenzo transforms the flourishing family businesses into an empire while Palermo observes with amazement - and sometimes with envy and contempt - the expansion of the Florios.
But the Florio story is also an epic that talks about love and family. Almost torn between her love for her husband Paolo and her never expressed feelings for Ignazio, Giuseppina (Ester Pantano and Donatella Finocchiaro) initially does not approve of the relationship between her son and Giulia Portalupi (Miriam Leone), a young Milanese woman who enters like a vortex into the Vincenzo's life and becomes his safe haven, the unassailable rock. Strong and intelligent, Giulia is a woman at odds with the rigid rules of the society of the time. After the birth of his illegitimate daughters Angela and Giuseppina, with her Vincenzo gives birth to the future heir of Casa Florio, Ignazio (Eduardo Scarpetta), who bears the same name as his uncle, a second father for Vincenzo. The young Ignazio in turn marries Giovanna D'Ondes (Adele Cammarata). Hard and fragile as crystal but full of passion and hungry for love, she is the key that allows Ignazio and the Florios to enter the circuit of the Palermo and Sicilian aristocracy.