Little Italy

Little Italy is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan adjacent to Chinatown.  A historical heart of immigrant life in New York City, Little Italy has shrunk as immigration from Asia increased and immigration from Europe fell over the 20th and 21st centuries.  Nowadays, booming Chinatown is encroaching on the traditional boundaries of Little Italy, and as with the rest of Lower Manhattan the area has gentrified in recent years, seeing the opening of many designer boutiques along the northern parts of Mulberry, Mott, and Elizabeth Streets.  Yet the neighborhood remains a vibrant center of Italian-American life, with great restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and pizzerias.

• Every year in mid-September, Mulberry Street is closed to traffic for the eleven-day-long celebration of the Feast of San Gennaro, a huge street fair and religious celebration of the Patron Saint of Naples
• Eat a slice of famous New York pizza, which started in 1905 in Gennaro Lombardi’s grocery store in Little Italy, making Lombardi’s arguably the first pizzeria in the United States