Domenico (Benedetto) Forte.  Benedetto  came from the hamlet of Cillucio near the     village     of Lesche in the commune of Casalattico situated in the beautiful                                                “Valle di Comino” in the province of Frosinone Italy. His Family were poor Peasant                farmers who made a living working for others or caring for Sheep and Goats on the mountainsides.

The name Forte may have come from the French FORT or FORTA.   A strong place,          Castle or Fort. The latin declension Fortis, Forte, Fortum,    Bold,  Brave,  Strong,  makes a                     romantic connection. It is also the cross piece protecting the hand on a sword or                   dagger.

Legend has it, some say, that Forte’s were mercenaries            brought to the province from France by Pomponius Atticus who was a                  roman multimillionaire and close friend od Cicero who used   his money to win friends and influence others.  It has also been                     suggested that the Fusciardis may also have been peasant             soldiers.

This included the great roman writer and statesman Cicero. 
2000 years ago Rome would get very hot and smelly in summer and Pomponius                      Atticus would  retire to one of his many villas of which  Montattico was  one.
He had got his name Atticus from the period he had been governor of the Greek                 province of  Attica, where he amassed his millons.
He brought back Greek slaves and many  Montattacesi (those from Montattico) have     Greek  looks and names eg Macari = Makarios.

Padre Edmondo, of blessed memory after whom I was named           discovered an ancient stone in the hillside just above the                        Camposanto (cemetery) and about fifty feet under Mortale,                 now (Mon Forte).
He climbed up to it and took a rubbings of the inscription.
It was in Latin and in Greek.  It describes how Pomponius                              Atticus had built a road up the mountain at his own expense.
This road is believed to have run roughly from San Lazzaro to                the Lesche along the mountain to Santa Caterina and up to where                     the stone is and towards Montattico.

Domenico's first wife Louisa Cocozza came from the nearby                village of Picinisco.
With her he immigrated to America around 1890.  They had                            two children Angelo and Lucia.
Benedetto did not like America and he decided to return to try his hand in business in England.  At first he went to London with his                       parents.  After his Mother died in a traffic accident he came to the west Country                              and settled with his wife, two children and his father in Exeter. 
His wife Louisa was well known and loved in Exeter at the turn of the century. She                    was as an amateur on the stage at local talent shows which she used to win hands                        down, because of the unusual nature of her acts, there she would do Italian dances                     and sing Italian ballads in her native costume. See photograph. 

Aunty (Lucia) Lucy married Stanley Croydon a local builder.

He built No’s 1 & 2 Dunsford gardens, St Thomas Exeter. Our family                     lived in No2 for many years.
Angelo married Rosa Fusco and they settled in Margate kent. they                   had three children Louisa, Maria and Tony.  They now live in Italy.

Louisa was killed by Lightning.  

After the torment and grief of losing his beloved Louisa                          my grandfather remarried  eventually . this time to Pacifica           Morelli. 

My Grandmother Pacifica Maria (in Morelli).  Pacifica was born on the 4Th of August           1880 in  Italy.   I was totally devoted to my grandmother who was the kindest and gentlest      of people.  She was always ready to forgive me my peccadilloes and would gently talk                    to me and put me straight.  My most endearing memory is of her sat in front of a                    roaring fire at "Littoria"  reading the newspaper and a glass of stout nearby.

She would call to me so that I could drink the froth from the top of the glass.                   Beneddetto and Pacifica had 6  more children who all became very well known in                 Exeter through the Ice-cream and restaurant businesses.  My  Grandmothers most              important job in the business was to watch the cash register. 

We called her handbag the "Black Heart".  Granny liked to gives us money to get                     sweets and things, and we used to play a game with her whereby she would say,                     "E'h getta ma baga" we would duly get her bag and she would say "I givva you 6d",             Thank you gran we would chorus as she handed us Florins,  2/- pieces. You have                         given us too much Gran we would say, E'h you a good chilldren, you keep'a.

 The Forte children in Exeter about 1930.         left to right.  Angelo, Henry, John, Tony, Rosina,                Lucia, Tommy.                                                                              Henry, Michael, John (Johnny) My father,               Tony, Rosina (Rosie) (Mocha Café’s), Philomena                (Mina), Carmine (Tommy).

In South street Exeter they had a fish & Chip shop and a Greengrocers and a                        Restaurant. The Fish & Chip shop later became an Ice Cream Parlour.                                       Like DELLERS which was also bombed during the war, our Ice Cream Parlour was a           favourite meeting place for the people of Exeter.

Upstairs there were Supper rooms. 
And above this on the third floor and Fourth floors of the shops is where the family                    lived and where my sister Teresa and I were born.

1930....A typical day in the life of the Forte family.

At one point in time The family owned three four storey shops all in a row at the top                     of South street.  There was a greengrocery business later replaced by an Ice cream              Parlour, a patisserie and a Fish and chip shop. The first floors of the buildings were               devoted to restaurant seating areas, the family living above the shops on the third                      and fourth floors.
All the children rose early each day.  There were many tasks that had to be                                 completed before the shops in South Street could be opened.

Ice cream had to be prepared for the days sale both in the Icecream parlour and the Icecream Barrows that were dispersed around the estates of Exeter.  Two of the older sons                         were sent with one of the larger Icecream barrows down to the Ice making plant                    which was situated in the arches by the river banks.  The journey down the steep                         hill of Exeter with an empty barrow was infinately easier than the return journey.                          Once the barrow had been loaded with Ice the push up the hill was arduous and               difficult.  My Father hit upon the ingenious idea of tying a rope between the handles                        of the barrow.  At that time most lorries were slow and had towing hooks on the                     back.  They were particularly slow in climbing the steep gradient of Fore street                           Exeter. The rope on the barrow was deftly attached to the hook on some                               unsuspecting lorry and they had a free and easy journey up to the shops. This                   enterprising free lift was interrupted on one occasion by a lorry driver seeing what                     the lads were up to and accelerating like mad at the top of Fore street and pulling               the unhappy lads all the way to Sidwell street at the other end of the Town.  Their                           Father was not too pleased with them on that occasion.

The Children of the family were responsible for the majority of the tasks involved in          preparing the businesses for the days trading.  Although they had staff to scrub the           floors they had to clean the working surfaces and all the machinery for making icecream                    and coffee as well as preparing potatoes and fish and other fresh foods.

Before this as immigrants in the 1890's Grandfather had lived in cottages near                        Mermaids yard.

Here he raised his early children and housed the people whom he had brought over                      from Italy to help him in his business.

The 1901 Census shows the Forte household as living at 6 & 7 New Mermaid Lodge, Exeter.

Domenico (torte) Forte (31). born 1870

His father Antonio forte (67). born1834

His wife Pacifica Forte (Morelli) (20). born 1881

His daughter Lucia (lucy) (3). 1898

His son Angelo (2). born 1899

Sabetto (Salvatore)? Akrefabe. lodger (19) employee. (dubious translation.)

Raphael Nardone. Lodger (16) employee.

Tomaso Capouno. Lodger (32) employee.

Domenico (Morale)? possibly Morelli. Lodger (41) employee.

Tomaso (Morale)? Morelli. Lodger (10) employee.

 Although Lodgers and employees most of these people were related to My                             Grandfather and brought over from Italy to help him in his business.  After a period                         of time they too would be given the chance to set up on their own independently.                      The  anomalies in the entries to the census was caused by the Italian style of writing                and the individual clerk whose job it was to interpret the information written in Italian that                   was supplied. 

 1900-1920 The Forte family were educated at The Mint School and at the Palace gate Convent. Education was primitive but useful and they all left school able to do Reading Writing and Arithmetic.
Circa 1920 Domenico Forte was now a gentleman, a Grandee by all accounts.  He had all his young teenage children working in the family businesses in South Street.  He was a frequent visitor to London and spent much time visiting relatives and did not need to do physical work himself again.     

Anecdote:- My Grandfather was very much respected in the                        business community.  This was especially true of the Italian                     Community of Devon and Somerset.  At the outbreak of the                              Second World War many Italian emigrants who had not become naturalised British Subjects, either because of ignorance of the procedure or they may not have                   been in England very long.  Some of them feared internment when Italy joined the                      war on the Axis side.  Many of them approached my grandfather with large                               amounts of money.  They asked him if he would look after the money for them until                    the war was over?  My grandfather agreed to do this and put these monies in a                       large safe at the top of No 2 South Street where we all lived at that time.  During                  the Blitz, An Elizabethan property across the road in South Street that housed a bakery,              recieved a direct hit from an incendiery bomb and caught fire.  The Building                     collapsed acroos the road onto our shops setting them alight.  The fire quickly                       spread through our property and up through the roof.  The large safe with all the                     money in it crashed through Three floors and ended up in the basement.  The fire            had heated the safe up to such an extent that all its contents were cooked to near ashes.   Grandad was obviously concerned, not only about the loss of his Businesses, but also all the                 money in the safe.  with difficulty they managed to open the safe, and inside it they                 found the charred remains of hundreds of banknotes and coins that had fused                           together through the heat.  Grandad went to his bank "The National Bank" in the              Cathedral Yard and spoke to the manager, who went and looked at the damaged                          safe.  The bank agreed to replace all the money that could clearly be identified as                          Paper currency.  My grandfather was thereby able to repay some of each persons                       entrusted savings when they requested them.  Consequently our family have                 remained faithfull to this day to "The Natwest" bank because of their genuiness on that one                      important occasion.

Eventually, after the Blitz they started a factory in Preston Street nearby and here                     they used the very latest technology in the making of the finest ice-cream using                      American Creamery Package machines as well as Giusti and Carpigiani along with         Pasteurisers and Homonogisers . I know because for several years I worked there                         in apprenticeship. 
The Labour government of the day both during and after the war subsidised the                              milk needed to make the ice-cream, they regarded it as a food, and indeed it was.
Each batch of ice-cream consisted of 80 gallons of full cream milk. 1 cwt of butter,                        56lb of sugar.
All this went into every ice-cream mix that we made at that time.
Local people were employed to wrap ice-cream briquettes and choc ices and ice                        lollies.
The Forte family were Roman Catholic and supported both the Sacred Heart Church             in South street and the Church of St Thomas on Dunsford Hill.
We also supported the police with fund raising and ice cream for fete’s etc.
Several of our ice-cream vans were derived from old Hearses that had been                           painted and gilded in gold’s blues and reds.  They had sliding glass windows and                        hand bells which all bore the legend SEMPER FIDELIS.

to be continued......................