Born about 1730. He was a popular Italian flautist, settling in London about 1760, where he was appointed first fiute in the Opera and was one of the first to adopt the eightkey fiute. Florio was a considerable rival to the great Joseph Tacet (q.v.). He is recorded as having covered the foot-joint C natural and C sharp keys wilh a little curtain in order to keep the keys secret. The keys had, in fact, been tried by Quantz (q.v.) about 1722 but were discarcled as being detrimental to tone.Florio appears to havre died in extreme poverty in 1795, leaving a son G.Florio, who was also a fiautist and a composer.Pietro Florio composed six sonatas for the German (q.v.) flute and three for Flute and piano.Flutes appear marked with his name from his London period, but he is not thought to have been a maker.