Your City's Little Italy?

[Travis007]

Ok, we have a Chinatown thread but let's see a Little Italy thread now. I'm not going to put up a poll since I don't want this to turn into a competition and I'm not sure how many cities have a Little Italy...blah blah blah

According toStatscanToronto in 2001 had an Italian population of 206,325 people and represent 10.9% of TO's population.

Toronto has two main Little Italy's. The older one is on College Street East, from Dovercourt to Bathurst.

During the early 1900's Italian immigrants bought up the affordable Victorian homes vacated by the suburb-seeking Anglo-Saxon population, and within a few years, Italian businesses had taken over along College Street. The world wars had brough in a huge influx of Italians to Toronto. Today, Little Italy is a little more diverse with more Portuguese moving in, and latin people. The restaurants in Little Italy are usually packed on weekends. Some great restaurants and clubs on College are Cafe Diplomatico (The Dip), Kalender, The Mod Club, Revival, Sneaky Dees, Coco Lezzone, Giovanna's Trattoria, Veni Vidi Vici, Lily and a few Pizza places

Pics:













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To the north of College, on St. Clair Street West (From Oakwood to Lansdowne) is Corso Italia which is just a block north of my house. It's not quite as vibrant as Little Italy. But there still are a few little shopping boutiques, markets, restaurants, cafes, and bars and gelaterias. At the west end of it is the Prospect Cemetary to the north and the Joseph J. Piccininni community centre and the Giovanni Caboto swimming pool. The best part is the "La Paloma" gelateria which has the best gelato in TO hands down.


And in recent years, many Italians have moved north of Toronto to the suburb of Woodbridge. The suburb of 160,000 people is 91% Italian.

[Hillis]

The suburb of 160,000 people is 91% Italian.

wow

[Blitz]

Windsor is about 11% Italian as well. The Little Italy is about 10 blocks long and located southeast of downtown.

[KingWest]

What about Montreal & Vancouver?

[addisonwesley]

And Greektown?

[Steeltown]

The unofficial Little Italy in Hamilton is James Street North. Hamilton's second largest speaking language is Italian.

Yet the City hasn't designated a Little Italy

[Oaronuviss]

Yeah by the looks of the Toronto one, it seems as though Windsor has one roughly the same size!!! One more thing in common with T.O!

[Hillis]

Tourism Toronto - Little Italy

[_sick_driver_]

or.. there's always "wopbridge".

[softee]

North Bay has a sizable Italian community, it's become dispersed across the city, but there is still a concentrated neighbourhood of Italians along High St. and the streets that interect it in the north central part of town with a large Catholic High school as the neighbourhood's centrepiece.

Sault Ste. Marie probably has one of the biggest per-capita Italian communities of any city in Canada -- i think the entire West end of that city is pretty much a "Little Italy".

[worldwide]

i heard that vancouvers little italy is commercial drive near broadway

[sukh]

^ Yeah, its alright, it used to be on Robson awhile back, but Toronto's is the most impressive in Canada.

[malek]

have you seen the two little italies in Montreal ?

[New York Yankee]

nice pics, but it looks a small 'little italy'. check the name...

[Travis007]

Originally Posted by New York Yankee

nice pics, but it looks a small 'little italy'. check the name...

Well, the pics that I found aren't necessarily all that great. It's looks a lot better in reality. If I had a digital camera I would definitely go take pics of the whole stretch of Little Italy and Corso Italia.

[furrycanuck]

Bridgeland, the area NE of downtown with the retail strips along Edmonton Trail and 1st Avenue NE, is Calgary's traditional Italian neighbourhood. The Italian community has dispersed and, like every ethnic community in Calgary, is all over the city, but Italian school is still at the Bridgeland community centre, and at least three important Italian markets are in the vicinity. Lina's Italian Market, at Centre St and 21st Ave NE is frankly better than any Italian market I've been to in Toronto.

[TSAPET]

Preston Street and the surrounding area is home to Ottawa's Little Italy.

The site doesn't have any great pics but it does give lots of information about the area.

[KGB]

Toronto's Little Italy isn't Italian any more...at least not in terms of the people who reside around there...it's been mostly Portuguese for a long time. The commercial street (College) still has some italian places, but com'on...it's all just trendoid now, with a slight Italian theme (complete with Vespa store). It's a very nice stretch...but RIDICULOUSLY busy and pretentious....too many line-ups.

The "real" Little Italy in the city is the Corso (St Clair)...very old-school middle-class/working class Italian....residentially and commercially. No line-ups or doormen around there LOL!






KGB

[partybits]

The only remnants of Little Italy actual Italian population is north of College. The Portuguese community (Rua Acores I believe) has kind of pushed right up to the south side of College. Working there I still see quite a mix of the two, but Portuguese have definalty taken number 1 spot.

[Steeltown]

Here's a link to a phototour the unofficial Little Italy that I was talking about in Hamilton. It's along James Street North aka Jamesville. Over the years Portuguese have taken over Jamesville.

http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=244236