Umberto was born in Pozzuoli in 1907 and learned the art of gelato at Peppino, a historic shop in Naples. In the 1930s he moved to Milan with the aim of emulating his teacher. He started off as a cloakroom attendant at Giannino, the legendary Milanese restaurant, where he met his wife. Then, in 1934, he opened the Gelateria Umberto in Piazza Cinque Giornate 4, which was shut down during the war but has remained uninterruptedly open from 1945 to the present.
A success story spanning decades that can be explained by a single word: quality. Quality of raw materials, which have always been rigorously selected. Quality of workmanship, still carried out with traditional methods. Quality of service, not only in the shop but also for home delivery.
But that’s not all.
The commitment to always guarantee the highest quality gelato is guided by a strict policy, which has never and will never tolerate exceptions: customers are offered only selected flavors, produced in small quantities, and made exclusively with seasonal fruit, to ensure maximum freshness and, above all, genuineness. As such, the lemon flavor is made from real lemons, the crema flavor from real egg custard. Everything strictly according to nature.
Umberto passed away in 1971, at which point his son-in-law Elio and daughter Cesira, who had been working alongside him for a while, kept the business going, further improving it and eventually handing it down to Stefano, Umberto’s grandson, who still follows the same recipes and upholds the same vocation for quality.