Metro

Pols have a ciao!

City Council members are raising their Italian flags in the stilettos-vs.-stromboli battle over a proposal to downsize Little Italy’s famed Feast of San Gennaro.

All eight Italian-American members of the council have penned a letter to Mayor Bloomberg, urging him to support Little Italy’s signature street festival at its full seven blocks, rather than a scaled-down version sought by owners of new boutique shops and the local community board.

Councilmember Vincent Gentile, who heads the council’s Italian-American caucus, warned that centuries of Italian tradition in the Big Apple are at stake.

“From Pietro Alberti’s 1635 arrival in New Amsterdam to the Piccirilli brothers’ carving of the Bryant Park Library’s marble lions, Italians’ place in New York City history and culture is extraordinary,” said Gentile, a Democrat who represents Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights.

“We’ve lived in this city for 400 years; we’ve celebrated and welcomed other cultures to it for 400 years, and I refuse to accept it when some downtown boutiques suggest we throw that history away.”

The caucus picked up some key support yesterday, when Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer signaled their backing for keeping the feast at its traditional length along Mulberry Street, from Canal to Houston streets.

“For 85 years, this world-class event has celebrated Italian-American culture in New York City and attracts thousands of visitors from around the world annually,” Stringer wrote in a letter supporting the feast scheduled for Sept. 15-25 this year.

Fashionistas from NoLIta — the abbreviated name for the area North of Little Italy — are asking Bloomberg to terminate the lively festival at Kenmare Street, reducing it by three blocks, so the “greasy” handprints of the zeppole makers don’t get anywhere near their high-end merchandise.

Community Board 2, which represents Little Italy, voted on Jan. 26 to send a resolution to Bloomberg asking him to consider reducing the size of the feast, after hearing complaints from NoLIta shop owners. Bloomberg has yet to make a decision, spokeswoman Evelyn Erskine said.

The shop owners are upset about the size of the crowds, and during the community-board meeting took no pains to hide their unflattering concerns about the type of people who attend the feast, accusing feast-goers of coming in their shops with “greasy hands” and staining the leather handbags and $300 dresses.