I am not very knowledgeable about Italian history. Only general idea about European history of the time, consolidation of separate dominions into nationalistic “modern” nations like German and Italian. I can’t judge the show on the merits of historical accuracy. But either the show is accurate or not, that imagined period provided beautiful backdrop.
At the beginning I thought that the story will be more about historical transformations like crumbling feudal order, raise of capitalist class, national movement and national consolidations. I expected family drama among aristocratic family will be just fluff that make personal anchor for depicting the period. And in fact that was my reading of first episodes, but it quickly reversed. At some point I felt the show focused mostly on personal problems of titular “Leopard”, aging aristocrat and his beloved ward nephew and daughter who become romantically involved. Historical background was still there, but weight of narrative considerably tilted to personal issues. In a way it is opposite direction that Indian show I watched recently, “Heeramandi”, where personal intrigues between tawaifs of pre-Independent Lahore. Interestingly, in both shows I felt that with what they started was more interesting, even though it run into opposite directions.
What is definitely worth the praise is photography. There are so many beautiful shots, that we could pause multiple times in every episode to find wallpaper-ready image. If someone has weakness to period pieces, Italian culture and Mediterranean landscapes, then they can consider watching this show. I traveled once to Italy, but it was rather focused trip, so I didn’t have opportunity to satisfyingly get familiar with that aspects. For that reason what have been brought to mind even more when I watched this show was video game “The Witcher 3” DLC “Blood and Wine” with their setting.