Worth a trip from anywhere in the city, the Arthur Ave. area of the Bronx is less than a mile from the B train stop at 182nd-183rd Sts. There are dozens of worthwhile restaurants and shops in this Little Italy, a part of the neighborhood called Belmont. These three are a great starting point. 

You can buy dried pasta, cured olives and countless other Italian goods at Casa Della Mozzarella, but the 25-year-old shop is named after a fresh cheese for good reason. “If 100 people come,” says current owner and chief mozzarella maker Orazio Carciotto, “98 buy mozzarella.”