The Early Years - Vincenti Family

From Resilience to Success

Chapter 1

The only way I can start writing the story of the Vincenti family is to go to the very beginning.

In 1880, two men, a Palestinian and a Lebanese, decided to build an electric mill in Palestine, since up until then all seeds were crushed by hand and the flour was of poor quality. They traveled to Italy in search of a good engineer on a turnkey offer. There they met engineer Giuseppe Vincenti, who had an excellent reputation and was very experienced. More importantly, he spoke English, since Palestine was under British influence at the time and English was necessary. The two partners were impressed by Giuseppe and quickly agreed to offer him the job.

He would be responsible for designing the electric mill, ordering all the parts, and overseeing its construction. Once ready, he left on the same ship carrying the equipment to Haifa, Palestine. Haifa was then the most important seaport in the region. Upon arrival, he began construction and assembled the mill in a relatively short time. When operations began, the two partners realized that running the mill was complex and required continuous maintenance. They thought it would be difficult to find the right person in Palestine to manage it, so they offered Giuseppe a partnership with full responsibility. He would run the mill, receive merchant grain, and ship the flour to clients, again holding equal shares with the other two partners.

After a short period, Giuseppe decided he had to return to Italy to bring his two young boys from Livorno. He closed his home there and brought his entire family and belongings to Palestine. Giuseppe and his children found Haifa a pleasant place to live, and he decided to build a house for the family. He purchased a piece of land separating the Arab Palestinian quarter from the business center, which was largely under the control of Palestinian Jews. There he built a two-story building: the ground floor contained two separate shops, and above them was a spacious family apartment with a large veranda and an exterior staircase.

Life settled into a comfortable rhythm. Giuseppe soon married a Palestinian woman, and everything seemed to be going well. Around 1885, the children attended the Salesian school for a short time. Business was successful, and Giuseppe grew wealthy, buying additional property, including a farm with olive groves and citrus trees for which Palestine was famous. His sons, Oreste and Giovanni, grew into young men, each marrying Palestinian women and settling in Haifa. Oreste had two children, Giulio and his little sister Adelaide, while Giovanni had a son named Pepino.

Life expectancy at the time was only in the fifties. Eventually Giuseppe died, and Oreste and Giovanni took over the mill. During World War I (1914–18), Italy sided with France and Britain against Germany and emerged victorious. The Versailles Treaty that ended the war imposed heavy and unfair demands on Germany, which left the country impoverished and resentful. In the early 1930s, an unknown man at the time named Hitler rose to power in Germany, determined to overturn the treaty and seek revenge. He began rebuilding the army and armaments. Italy, meanwhile, reclaimed Veneto and the northeastern regions including Venice and Trieste, finally uniting the country.

In time, Giulio’s father died, and two years later his younger sister, only eight or ten years old, also passed away. Giulio became Oreste’s only surviving child. When Oreste died, Giulio’s mother, whose health was fragile, became overly protective of her son. When Giulio reached marriageable age, she began searching for a bride for him. She went to the local Catholic church but was finicky in her standards and found no suitable match.

One day, a friend told her about an excellent family—the Bahus—well educated and in good financial standing. They had two daughters and three sons, all educated in Lebanon: the girls at an American women’s school and the boys at the American University of Beirut. During the summers they stayed in Haifa. The Bahus were a Greek Orthodox family who attended church every Sunday. A friend took Giulio’s mother to meet them, and she was impressed by their refinement.

The following Sunday, Giulio was brought to church to see the girls. He was immediately taken with them. Following local custom, it was decided that Alice, the elder daughter, would be the preferred bride, as she was considered more mature. Unfortunately, she was already engaged to a prominent young lawyer. Attention then turned to the younger sister, Salma, a lively and beautiful young woman of sixteen or seventeen. Giulio told his mother that Salma was the one he wished to marry.

Soon after, Giulio and Salma were married. Because Giulio’s mother was in poor health, she urged Salma to have children quickly so she could see her grandchildren before she died. In 1929, Salma gave birth to their first child, a boy also named Giuseppe. Soon after came a second boy, Oreste, and a third, Elio. Giulio, however, longed for a daughter to name after his beloved late sister Adelaide. They tried again, and Salma gave birth to identical twin boys, Alberto and Giovanni. Still no girls. Finally, in 1938, Salma bore a baby girl, whom they named Adelaide.

By the late 1930s the world was in turmoil. Germany had become the strongest country in Europe, and Hitler wielded absolute power. Britain’s weak prime minister tried to negotiate with him, but Hitler broke his promises. When the prime minister resigned, Winston Churchill took office. The era of peace had ended.

Chapter 2

I must admit that the following historical context comes from my memory as a young man. History, after all, lives in memory:

The 1940s began with a bang. Hitler was never satisfied with his easy victories. He began by annexing Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, and then turned to Poland. Southern Poland bordered Germany and the north bordered Russia, neither friendly to Poland. Germany and Russia agreed to invade and split Poland between them. But this time Hitler overstepped. Poland had an agreement with France and the UK guaranteeing mutual protection.

World War II began. Unlike in the first war, when Italy sided with France and the UK, this time Italy allied with Germany, impressed by its rapid successes. Mussolini declared his partnership with Hitler in a grand speech announcing war against France and Britain.

A few days later, a policeman came to the Vincenti home and placed the family under house arrest, as they were Italians living in a British colony. After a long period of confinement, they were told that a bus would come the next day to take them elsewhere. They were allowed only one suitcase for the entire family. The bus took them to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, and housed them on the top floor of a large convent. The space was cramped, and many nationalities were held there. Salma was one of the few who spoke English and soon befriended the camp captain’s wife, persuading her to allow the children to attend a Salesian school each day to study and play.

Salma took full responsibility for escorting the children to and from the school each day. The boys were happy to have the chance to run, play, and learn. One reason the captain’s wife agreed was Salma’s promise that the school would provide English lessons for all the children. Life went on this way for several months until one day the captain announced that a ship would arrive to take everyone to a new location.

The children were excited to board a ship. It sailed south to Alexandria, crossed the Suez Canal, traveled through the Red Sea, and continued down the East African coast to Mombasa, Kenya’s main seaport. The climate was hot but the landscape lush and green. From there they were taken by bus to a concentration camp that had once been a training ground for military officers, surrounded by barbed wire. It felt like a zoo, except we were the ones inside the cell while the animals looked on. For children, though, it was an adventure, with space to run and play.

After a couple of months, buses came again to take us to a train station. We boarded and headed west. After a few hours we passed Nairobi, the capital, and soon saw a sign: Welcome to Uganda. We finally arrived near Kampala, where there was another military camp.

This camp was similar to the previous one, except for a single small villa on the grounds. Salma asked the captain’s wife if the Vincenti family could stay there, and she agreed. We became the only family living with relative comfort.

The camp baked bread daily for everyone, with an Italian baker in charge. Salma spoke to him to ensure that the Vincenti family received a bit of extra care. We remained there for about four years. I must say that we were treated well throughout our internment. The International Red Cross visited regularly to ensure humane conditions, and everyone appreciated their efforts.

At last, the war ended. One day the captain’s wife, now a close friend of Salma’s, announced that we were free to go home. We returned by the same route we had come and eventually arrived at the port of Haifa, a free family ready to begin a new life.

Chapter 3

Palestine was now so different for the Vincenti family since the British confiscated all of our property, farms, and bank accounts. The only thing they did not confiscate was our home, because according to international law, the occupier cannot take the home of enemies. So we came back to our home. However, the atmosphere was not as pleasant as when we had left. We were short of money. Things were very tense since so many European Jews had arrived legally or illegally to Palestine and started to create problems with the Palestinians.

The Jews who came in were better educated, better trained in matters of war and the military. Many had experience fighting in European wars. The UK decided slowly to give independence to Palestine. All of their military assets were left to the Jews, who were newcomers. Problems started between the local population and the new immigrants who were better trained than the locals. Finally, a civil war broke out between the two sides.

Our home was exactly on the separation line between the two communities, and it became very difficult for us to live there as it had become very dangerous. So in 1947, the family decided to go to Lebanon and spend the summer there, hoping that by the end of the summer the situation would be solved and we could go back to our home. Unfortunately, the situation got worse and the United Nations, with the help of the United States and the United Kingdom, divided Palestine into two parts: Israel and Palestine. By the end of the summer, we couldn’t go back to Palestine anymore. We remained in Lebanon.

We went to a small town called Ghazir, a very nice summer resort, waiting for the situation to calm down so we could go back home. We never did go back home. We were stuck in Lebanon. Our financial situation was getting worse because we had enough money for the summer only, and so needed to do something urgently. Giuseppe decided he did not want to continue school and wanted to work. He convinced Salma to buy a typewriter and he started writing letters to Italian companies asking to be their representative in Lebanon.

At the time, Lebanon was largely francophone, so there was a lot of space for Italian businesses in the country. He registered a company called G. Vincenti and Sons in 1949 since we lost hope of going back to Haifa.

The first thing we imported was Italian cheese, salami, mortadella, and prosciutto, in small quantities. We came back to Beirut and settled in a very tight apartment: two bedrooms, a small living room, two bathrooms, and a small kitchen. Giuseppe never gave up writing letters trying to find out what the country needed in order to provide goods in Lebanon.

Business grew at a slow pace. One day, Giuseppe learned that the harvest in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon was very poor that year. Everybody forecasted that there would be a shortage of bread. The Lebanese, like all Arab countries, consumed a great deal of bread. Giuseppe started sending letters to big exporters of flour in the United States, Canada, and Australia, looking for competitive prices to import to Lebanon.

One day, he received a letter from an exporter of wheat who told him that he had a large quantity of flour. He promised to give him a special price on the condition he buy the entire shipment. Giuseppe started looking at all the importers in Lebanon until one of them placed an order, opened a letter of credit with the exporter, and Giuseppe got his first big commission from this transaction: $1,800. This was an exorbitant amount of money at the time.

Now, we were ready to rent a three-room office in downtown Beirut. We moved our home to a bigger apartment, containing three bedrooms, a living and dining room, a large kitchen, and two bathrooms. Vincenti and Sons now had enough capital to start business on a larger scale.

Giuseppe decided to go to Italy by ship to learn about new products. One day he went to a restaurant and ordered spaghetti with salsa Bolognese. They brought him a nice big dish sprinkled with Parmigiano cheese. Giuseppe loved the dish but was a little surprised. He called the waiter and asked him, “How can you bring me fresh spaghetti in less than 10 minutes?” The waiter answered that there were now Italian companies that supplied ready-made, uncooked pasta in packages ready to serve.

Giuseppe inquired further. The waiter went to the kitchen and brought him a sample box of Barilla spaghetti. The next day he took the train to Bologna to examine the new product. He met with the owner and agreed that Viccenti and Sons would be the only company in Lebanon supplying Barilla spaghetti to Lebanon. Immediately, he was given the sole rights to represent the brand in Lebanon.

He was proud and excited with this new product. He returned to Lebanon and placed an order with Barilla. He began to place advertisements on Lebanese television. In Arabic, spaghetti is known as “macarona.” Giuseppe was the first to place advertisements for macarona in the Lebanese market. Many women took to the new, quick version of fresh pasta at a reasonable price, and Barilla took off in the country. We were the first company in Lebanon to bring packaged pasta and Parmigiano to there.

Giuseppe was in charge of everything: traveling, contacting new factories and clients, directing sales, and managing the company’s cash flow. The responsibilities were overwhelming. My mother, who was known for her special intuition, realized that Giuseppe was overworked and too strict with clients about timely payments. Many of the clients owned small shops at that time and could not always pay on time. Salma Vincenti called for a meeting with Giuseppe, Giulio, and Oreste to bring Oreste into the business and be in charge of sales. Oreste had a more diplomatic and compromising approach to dealing with clients. Business grew further.

As business grew, a Lebanese businessman who had worked for many years in West Africa came back to live in Lebanon. In francophone West Africa, he had been exposed to Italian films and fell in love with them. He was surprised that in Lebanon only French and American films were available. He went to the Italian consulate and asked that he be given the name of Italian companies in Lebanon. To his surprise, he was told that there was only one company: Vincenti and Sons, and urged him to go see them.

With address in hand, he went to see the Vincentis. Giuseppe opened the door and struck up a conversation. The visitor told him that he wanted to start a company to import Italian movies to Lebanon. Giuseppe said that he would be happy to be his partner. They made an agreement and established a company called Italia Film. Today it is the biggest independent film distributor in the Middle East.

Giuseppe, like all the Vincentis, loved films. He decided to take the first ship to Italy to find out who the biggest distributors of Italian films were. He found the largest one and signed an agreement for distribution in Lebanon. He was given a special price for five films as these were the first Italian films shipped to Lebanon. Once there, he opened a line of credit and brought the films. The first Italia Film picture was Ulises with Kirk Douglas. The film had a great actor, great scenery, and even mythological beings like Cyclops. Penelope was played by the famous Italian actress Silvana Mangano. This was a great success.

Oreste, with his new responsibility as sales manager and collector, was a big success for G. Vincenti and Sons. The company grew even more, with meticulous work and sacrifice.

The Vincenti family consisted of nine people, including: Giulio with his small mustache, company president; Giuseppe as the company’s driving force; Oreste, in charge of business development; and Salma Vincenti, the one with vision, faith, and a tremendous amount of luck. She was the soul of the company. She had an ability to balance competing views and perspectives. All of this made Viccenti and Sons, along with Italia Film, very successful.

Chapter 4

In the 1970s, a civil war in Lebanon divided the country into two warring sides. One side controlled the airport and areas of West Beirut, while the other held the well-groomed district of Ashrafiyye and parts of the Beirut port. As the conflict intensified, the seaport closed and the airport functioned only part-time. Food shortages appeared across Beirut, both east and west.

Since G. Vincenti & Sons already had a contract with the Romanian government, the company secured imports of sheep’s milk Kashkaval cheese, a favorite among the Lebanese. Oreste was sent to Holland to purchase a 900-ton ship and began shipping cheese, ghee, butter, and other products such as Barilla spaghetti from Romania. The ship would wait at Cyprus’ seaport, then sail in the evening for Lebanon, docking at Jounieh just north of Beirut. At a small port, the goods were unloaded by Giuseppe and dozens of workers.

Before sunrise, the ship would sail back out toward Cyprus with its lights switched off. Named the SS Carolina after Oreste’s daughter, the ship often returned with apples from Lebanon, later redistributed to other Middle Eastern markets. This continued until 1990, when the warring sides signed a peace deal. The ship was then sold, and the company returned to normal transportation.

Business grew steadily. Vincenti’s premises were equipped with refrigeration for safe food storage. As Lebanon’s economy expanded, G. Vincenti & Sons thrived, employing 300 workers at its peak and supplying foodstuffs from the northern mountains to the southern border.

The company supported the nine-member Vincenti family. Elio pursued law at the local Jesuit university. Twins Alberto and Giovanni transferred to the American International College and then began their studies at the affiliated American University. Adelaide attended the same high school as her mother, Salma, before training as a teacher. The youngest brother, born after the Second World War, entered elementary school, and life seemed full of promise.

In 2005, the Italian embassy informed the family that Giuseppe Vincenti had been honored with the title Cavaliere del Lavoro by President Ciampi. A decade later, in 2015, he received the title Commendatore del Lavoro. In 2025, Oreste too was honored as Cavaliere del Lavoro.

Oreste decided to live in Bucharest and started his own operation very similar to the Beirut family business called G Vincenti & Sons and has been extremely successful with incredible results. Elio graduated in law and continued his business in the family business as a Financial Controller. The twins, Alberto and Giovanni, both had remarkable success following different paths: Alberto went to Austria and graduated as a medical doctor and then came to the US and started a walk-in clinic which was a great success in Northville, Michigan; Giovanni went to the US and graduated from the University of Washington with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and then proceeded to work for Boeing for a few years, then Carrier International, before ultimately starting his own business called Pal International. Pal specialized in pre-insulated ducting and became a worldwide leader as it is the only company in the world to gain UL listing. Adelaide completed her teacher training and taught in several schools. And lastly, Flavio graduated from the American University of Beirut as a medical doctor top of his class, came to the US specializing in nephrology (kidney) and over time became the top nephrologist in America voted by his peer group and is still working to this day. All this great success from all of these Vincentis is a tribute to 2 people that has to be acknowledged: Our mother, Salma, who was the driving force behind each of us by instilling a tenacious outlook that included great determination, vision and lots of luck; and Giuseppe who was the patriarchal leader and worked day & night with great enthusiasm, vision, hard work, hope and love to the family.