Little Italy is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italians.
Historically, Little Italy extended as far south as Bayard Street, as far north as Bleecker, as far west as Lafayette and as far east as the Bowery. As Italian Americans left the expensive Manhattan borough for other neighborhoods in The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, the neighborhood recognizable as Little Italy shrank.
Some of the neighborhood has been absorbed by Chinatown, as immigrants from China and other East Asian countries moved to the area. The northern reaches of Little Italy, near Houston Street, ceased to be recognizably Italian, and eventually became the neighborhood known today as NoLIta, an abbreviation for North of Little Italy. Today, the section of Mulberry Street between Broome and Canal Streets, lined with Italian restaurants popular with tourists, remains distinctly recognizable as Little Italy.
The Feast of San Gennaro is a large street fair, lasting 11 days, that takes place every September along Mulberry Street between Houston and Mosco Streets.
Other Italian American neighborhoods in New York City include Little Italy of the Bronx (on Arthur Avenue, in the Fordham section of The Bronx); Bensonhurst, Brooklyn; Bay Ridge, Brooklyn; various neighborhoods in Brooklyn; Howard Beach, Queens; Ozone Park, Queens; Middle Village, Queens; Morris Park, the Bronx; Pelham Bay, Bronx, and the whole borough of Staten Island, where 44.5% of the population is of Italian ancestry, the highest percentage of Italian-Americans in a county in the United States.