Neighborhood Guide

Little Italy


Little Italy is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italian Americans. It is bounded on the west by Tribeca and Soho, on the south by Chinatown, on the east by the Bowery and Lower East Side, and on the north by Nolita.

Little Italy welcomes a heavily tourist crowd to its high concentration of souvenir shops and traditional Italian eateries and bakeries. Tenement buildings, once home to the immigrants who settled the area in the late 1800s, line the narrow streets. Mulberry Street, the main thoroughfare, turns into a pedestrian mall on summer weekends. The area celebrates its heritage each September at the busy San Gennaro festival.