If you hear “Ciao Bella, come stai?” (or bello, if you are a man) and smell garlic in the street, but you are not in the Stivale, or the boot, as we call our country, there is a good chance you have ended up in one of the many Little Italy around the United States. You can read many articles about the decline of these Italian neighborhoods, and, in some senses, they have been declining. Many are smaller than before, others are less crowded, but what remains is that around these areas you can still witness some authentic aspects of Italian culture.

In the period surrounding1900, almost four million Italians came to the United States. Those were difficult years for our country, especially in Southern Italy where poverty and natural disasters pushed many to seek a better life in the New World. The flood of Italian immigrants was also significant after the end of World War II. The influx was so large that it became easy for Italians to build enclaves in American cities.