Little Italy

New York’s Little Italy sits in Lower Manhattan, centered on the classic stretch of Mulberry Street and spilling into nearby blocks around Grand, Hester, and Canal. Once a much larger Italian-American enclave, it’s now a compact neighbourhood edged by Chinatown and Nolita, small in footprint, but still loud in personality.

The area’s signature scene is street-level: narrow blocks lined with old-school red-sauce restaurants, espresso stops, and pastry counters. A cornerstone is Ferrara Bakery & Cafe, a long-running Little Italy institution founded in 1892 and still associated with the neighbourhood’s dessert-and-coffee ritual.

If you want to feel Little Italy at full volume, come during the Feast of San Gennaro, the annual September street festival that takes over Mulberry Street with food stands, music, religious processions, and crowds moving shoulder-to-shoulder.

Beyond the dining strip, Little Italy is also a place where overlapping histories meet. The National Park Service highlights the broader Chinatown and Little Italy Historic District as a window into immigration, neighbourhood change, and the layers of communities that have shaped downtown Manhattan.

Even today, a short walk through Little Italy can feel like a quick time-travel loop: heritage signage, church spires, souvenir stands, and the smell of garlic and espresso drifting between tenements and newer storefronts.

A good way to experience it is simply to walk Mulberry Street slowly, especially in the early evening when lights come on, and outdoor tables fill up. Pop into a pastry shop for cannoli, then detour a block or two to notice how quickly the streetscape shifts into Chinatown’s markets or Nolita’s boutiques.