When Italian immigrants moved to this Manhattan neighborhood in the late 1800s, they brought their customs, food and language. That heritage remains evident today—Little Italy's streets are lined with restaurants serving Italian staples on red-and-white checkered tablecloths.

Little Italy (also Italian: Piccola Italia) is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City, known for its Italian population. 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.

The Little Italy neighborhood just north of downtown San Diego is not your typical stretch of red-checkered-tablecloth eateries. Not only does the neighborhood boast of being the largest “Little Italy” in the United States—spanning 48 square blocks—but its cultural offerings extend well beyond its Italian heritage.

A "Little Italy" strives essentially to have a version of the country of Italy placed in the middle of a large non-Italian city. This sort of enclave is often the result of periods of Italian immigration, during which people of the same culture settled or were ostracized and segregated together in certain areas.