Visitors to Little Italy are transported to another time and place thanks to the sights, sounds and smells of Italian cooking emanating from dozens of restaurants lining Mulberry Street.
Once a thriving Italian neighborhood, Little Italy – with its cobblestone streets and turn-of-the-century tenement buildings – is now mainly a tourist spot where people can explore its narrow streets clad with green, white and red flags, shop at local specialty food shops and eat in its many restaurants.
Over the last 40 years, droves of Italian-Americans left the area and moved to the suburbs. A wave of Chinese immigration to bordering Chinatown expanded that community’s reach and Little Italy was reduced into a small area spanning just six blocks.
With rents going up in the increasingly trendy SoHo and the Lower East Side, many chic bars and boutiques have moved in – further intruding upon the neighborhood’s old-world landscape where Neapolitan and various Sicilian dialects can still be heard spoken by elderly people chatting on street corners.
While many New Yorkers speak of a disappearing Little Italy, those who live in the neighborhood have kept the area as vibrant and colorful as ever. Today, over 30 restaurants and cafes line Mulberry Street between Spring and Canal Streets, drawing hungry visitors from around the world.
The annual feast of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples, is held every September and the neighborhood is transformed into a gigantic street fair.
The colorful, two-week festival is visited by an estimated 3 million people who spend hours each year stuffing their bellies with pizza, fried zeppole and sausage and pepper sandwiches.
Columbus Fact: Richard Nixon made Columbus Day a federal public holiday in 1971.