It all began like this...
It was in 1939 when Tonitto (nick name for Antonio) Dovo, after staying for a time in Sicily where he learnt the art of making ice cream, decides to open an ice cream parlour in his city Genoa, in the elegant Albaro suburb.

50's and 60's
Tonitto works hard and firmly believes in the quality of his ice cream; so that the passion he puts into his work, his expertise and careful research of ingredients and best raw materials all combine to make an ice cream renown to be the best in town.

70's
Alfredo, Tonitto's son, inherits the passion for ice cream and takes over family’s activity the ice cream parlour after gaining experience in other regions where he perfected this art.
It's a success: the ice cream parlour becomes the favourite meeting place for the Genoese fashionable elite. The best Genoese restaurants are also asking for his ice cream, so Alfredo decides to move the production elsewhere to a small factory from where he could adequately supply these restaurants and the other two ice cream parlours he had opened up in the city in the meantime. Production on a large scale now begins.

80's
Work increases and orders are also arriving from other parts of Italy, particularly Costa Smeralda in Sardinia and from Lombardy. The product can be enjoyed by increasingly important customers now, such as the King of Jordan, who at the time, specifically asked for Tonitto ice cream when giving parties. But Alfredo's successes do not end here: in 1984 the great challenge by opening a new impressive ice cream parlour in Beverly Hills becoming one of the favourite haunts for Hollywood actors and artists in just a few months. Commitment is great, perhaps too great, leading to the decision to sell the shops to be able to completely dedicate himself on the thing he loved the most: producing ice cream.

90's
Increasing demand makes it necessary to move on to industrial dimensions, and production is transferred to a new 7,000 sq.m building, equipped with the most advanced industrial plants.

The Tonitto ice cream factory is now a modern industry with the capacity of serving not only its usual customers, but also the important retail chains, a sector undergoing considerable development in Europe in those days. This new structure can adequately satisfy demands coming from all over Europe and also Japan.

Recent history
Luca, son of Alfredo enters the business at the end of the 90s, and, following the family tradition, at first works in the production department, then passing through the research and development sector Luca becomes responsible for the business when his father Alfredo decides to retire. In 2004 he is joined by his brother Massimiliano who takes care of a fundamental job as production manager.

The two brothers currently run the business, giving it a youthfully dynamic but solid standing by investing in product and process innovation, always for the superlative quality achieved at all levels.