Vittorio Antonio Scaletta was born on May 2nd 1925 in Sicily. In 1932, Vito and his father, mother and older sister Francesca moved to the U.S. city of Empire Bay. Vito grew up poor in the slums of Empire Bay. His father made meager earnings for manual labor on the docks, overseen by Derek Pappalardo. Much of the families income was wasted on his father's drinking problem. Sometime before the events of Mafia II, it is revealed that Vito's father died under mysterious circumstances before he was shipped out to fight in WW2.

During his service in the war, Vito was awarded with a Distinguished Service Cross and a Purple Heart Medal from General Patton. He would later receive a World War II Victory Medal and a European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal after WW2