Lockdown has been tough for us all, in a multitude of different ways.

But what do you do when your business is hit? When your livelihood is in danger?

What do you do when you are forced to stay at home during a spring heatwave when your business is selling ice creams?

How do you cope - and not just cope, but stay cheerful - vowing to come back stronger when all the pain, worry and uncertainty is over?

Hitchin Nub News talked to Fabio Vincenti, owner of the much-loved Fabio's Gelato on Hermitage Road as he recalled how the joy ice cream brings kept him and his family going – as well as many in our community – during those dark days.

Read on for our first Hitchin Nub News feature article on businesses in the town.

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Fabio Vincenti looks me in the eye and says in a somber, understated tone laced with a mix of incredulity and modest pride: "The joy on people's faces when we delivered our ice cream during the dark days of lockdown kept us going."

The good-natured 36-year-old - who, it has to be said, looks a decade younger - is a well-known fixture in Hitchin thanks to his popular ice cream parlour, Fabio's Gelato.

Fabio left his job as a programmer to follow his dream of owning a gelateria with his wife, Hannah.

The pair found a shared love of gelato from frequent visits to the Italian capital Rome, eventually taking the plunge five years ago, bravely risking everthing to launch a gelato business – but only after romantic Fabio proposed to Hannah in the Eternal City.

Through their hard work and dedication, the business became the talk of the town, and a fixture for many in Hitchin, young and old.

Queues of families three or four deep, halfway down Hermitage Road on a sunny summer's day become commonplace, as Fab and Hannah went from strength to strength, opening a second parlour in nearby Letchworth.

In providing a large selection of mouth-watering ice creams in all manner of flavours and styles, Fabio became something of an alchemist, earning him the nickname 'The Willy Wonka of Ice Cream'.

Fab (or Willy) also became a social media hit, going viral at different times with various unique concoctions he had engineered, including a Christmas twist on a traditional staple – ice cream 'pigs in blankets' on a real Yorkshire pudding.

Life was good. Until the coronavirus pandemic gripped the globe.

Good-natured Fabio fixes me with a serious stare and says: "It's been a tough ride," adding: "It was something none of us expected. It hit us, and everyone, hard.

"We were driving home from work, listening to the news on that Friday in March when the government said shops had to shut. Our hearts sunk.

"We thought that was the end of it for our business. We'd worked so hard to make it work, the same as it was for so many people.

"I think fear and pure panic took over. I needed that night to process what was going on in my head – what we were going to do, how we would pay for the bills, who was going to help us.

"But because everyone was in the same boat, there was a feeling that we hadn't failed – and that we could somehow survive."

The resourceful pair of Fabio and wife Hannah, a former Hitchin Girls' School pupil, and a director of the business, went from closing their beloved shop on day one of lockdown, to immediately 'potting up' hundreds of tubs of ice cream.

They didn't want their stock to go to waste, so made the decision to transfer their entire remaining stock into 'Ben and Jerry' style tubs - and hit the road, taking orders for delivery.

"That was crazy for two weeks solid," remembered Fabio with a hint of a rueful smile, as he explains: "It was worrying because summer is our busiest time. And on that first Monday of lockdown the sun turned up big time, which further compounded our panic. We knew we had to keep fighting.

"It was the worst time, the heatwave was the worst thing that could have happened to us as a business that serves ice cream - because we knew we would have been so busy. To see the sun, but not be able to open our ice cream shop was hard. We could have cried all night.

"But Hitchin is a town full of community values and the support we've had from people has been amazing. We didn't realise that support was there - from heartwarming messages saying: 'What you're doing is amazing, keep going.'"

However, the demands of balancing a business during lockdown while continuing to maintain a family life meant the 16 hour days the pair were working were not sustainable in the long run.

"Having a two-year-old daughter to keep safe and healthy, we had to survive Covid - but we also had to survive family life with a lovely, lively, two-year old," Fabio underlined. "There comes a point where family's got to come before business."

So their next option was to run a takeaway service. People purchased online and came to their shop on Hermitage Road pick it up on a certain timeslot.

The decision proved to be a hit. It cut their workload somewhat, while keeping their business ticking over.

Importantly, for the wider Hitchin community at the height of lockdown, it gave people something to look forward – a simple communion in sharing a pleasure that brings joy to everyone.

Fabio recalled that surreal, strange, disturbing time by recalling positive encounters: "What really touched us were families that got in touch to say their children were suffering from mental health problems, and that they needed treats to keep going in such tough times, to be able to look forward to something happy in dark moments.

"And they told us our ice cream helped contribute to that sense – for everyone I think - that we wouldn't let this pandemic beat us.

"Others also got in touch to say that when they dropped off our ice cream as a present to family members they said it made their week. They told us the experience was 'priceless'. They couldn't go to supermarkets so we were a lifeline in a way, which is humbling."

The Willy Wonka of Ice cream's voice rises as he becomes animated once again, showing genuine passion for a gentle product by adding: "Ice cream might be seen as a non-essential item - but actually it is essential to happiness for so many reasons. It brings back childhood memories.

"Ice cream is always a positive memory and helped during such a dark time.

"It also helped by facilitating visits to family members. People told us they could see their families smiling through the windows of their house when they dropped off our ice creams. It also connected them to happy family memories, which was important during the dark days of lockdown.

"We turn ice cream into fun. It prompts nostalgia, grandparents can take grandkids out, parents can take kids out, it creates happy memories and prompts happy memories from the past. We embrace that whole Mediterranean vibe when the entire family gets involved."

Thankfully, Fabio's Gelato is starting to thrive once again as the town of Hitchin wakes from its enforced slumber. The town centre is becoming busier, shops and businesses are shaking off their unfortunate hibernation in a 'new normal'.

Face masks are now worn in establishments as a matter of course, as people return to spending money in a town wisely noted for its preponderance of high-quality independent retailers and eateries.

For many, including the personable Fabio, whose friendly countenance belies a teak tough nature when forced with a fight to survive, the road ahead will be hard.

Many businesses are still trying to work out how best to adapt to the new ways of working, while keeping to rigid government guidelines.

Yet only this week Hitchin town centre manager Tom Hardy hailed businesses for their reilience as he explained how many were coming back stronger.

The sentiment chimed with Fabio. "Covid has certainly focused our attention on our business and it's really made us tear the whole business apart, micro-manage it and analyse everything," he reflected.

"It's going to be hard work, but what keeps us going are the people and stories we have encountered.

"Once, when on our deliveries at the height of the pandemic, we had a family outside their house clapping us, saying 'we love ice cream.'

"I had to bite my lip and hold back the tears. I just said 'thank you and enjoy' and drove off as quick as possible otherwise I would have cried with emotion.

"It's memories like that which keep us going," as Fabio once again looks me straight in the eye after speaking in a somber, understated tone that is mixed with admiration and incredulity, and I see his throat catch.

Perhaps mine does too.

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Fabio's Gelato. 13 Hermitage Road, Hitchin and 42 Leys Avenue, Letchworth.

Keep an eye out for our first in-depth Hitchin Nub News Q&A, which will be with Fabio.