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New York City People and Culture: Little Italy and NoLIta

Harlem | Chinatown | Little Italy and NoLIta | New York City People

Little Italy

The heart of Little Italy is Mulberry Street. In the second half of the 19th century, NYC's Italian immigration reached its peak, with several Italian parishes and an Italian-language newspaper. Today, there are fewer than 5,000 Italians living in Little Italy, but the heavenly aromas of the Italian bakeries and restaurants still waft around Mulberry and Grand Streets. The filmmaker Martin Scorsese shot the classic Mean Streets in this neighborhood, but today it couldn't be friendlier or safer!

Landmarks include Old St. Patrick's Church and the Police Building . It's a popular New York neighborhood, filled with Old World atmosphere and many excellent eateries, among them Umberto's Clam House, Da Nico, Casa Bella, and Original Vincent's . Mid-September is a great time to visit for the most exciting annual event in the neighborhood, the ten-day Feast of San Gennaro. During this celebration, Mulberry Street is renamed Via San Gennaro and the shrines and relics of this saint are paraded through the streets - don't be surprised to see the faithful pin dollar bills to the saint as he passes by - and the tantalizing smell of fried pastry and sausages fills the air. The crowds enjoy Italian foods of all types, rides, games, entertainment, and audience-participation singing and dancing. Tarantella, anyone?

NoLIta

Not so long ago, only a few noteworthy shops dotted the landscape east of Broadway in Lower Manhattan. The neighborhood known as NoLIta, or North of Little Italy, seemed quaint, a living postcard of narrow streets, mom-and-pop stores, and reasonable rent. Then, during the mid 1990s, many designer refugees from the celebrity-clogged, high-rent New York neighborhoods of SoHo and TriBeCa fled eastward and turned tiny pizzerias and shoe repair shops into shops to purvey their creations. By 1999, a number of low-attitude boutiques blossomed on Mulberry, Mott, and Elizabeth Streets, offering gorgeous one-of-a kind, designer goodies - bejeweled and embroidered purses, rainbow colored shawls, hand-tooled boots, and custom-designed jewelry.