Little Italy

In the Real World (that's to say, in the domain of the irrelevant) a neigbourhood of New York.

More importantly, the first and biggest Italian language MOO, home of a very influent discordian cabal, of many cats, and of countless lusers from all over the planet.

Little Italy is a neighbourhood in Toronto. It stretches along College Street from about Bathurst to Crawford Street (I live at Crawford and College; one side of Crawford the street signs have the Italian flag on them; on the other side, they have the Portuguese flag. Ye gods, does that ever get loud during the World Cup...)Little Italy is famous for its (surprise) Italian restaurants and clubs. These tend to be hyper-chic establishments where one can attempt to come off a more hip than ones neighbour over neon pink beverages of uncertain chemical compositions. One place that I personally recommend to visitors and residents alike is the Cafe Diplomatico. This is a very nice restaurant that serves very nice food at very nice prices. My favorite is the calzone (NOT the same thing as a panzerotto.) It's a huge foot-long thing with tons of filling and optional sauce on top, and the basic is three bucks (Canadian, no less!) Also, Sicilian Ice Cream on Montrose makes some really great ice cream - we're talking the good Italian stuff here, with the ices and Tira Mi Su flavours. I like the milkshakes; not very elegant, perhaps, but damn good.

Little Italy in Baltimore City is located West of the Inner Harbor and is famous for Vaccarro's dessert and pastry shop, Aldo's (one of the best among Baltimore restaurants) and the annual summer movie festival held outdoors.

Go there and wander around on warm summer evenings; avoid the bad neighborhoods to the North, the sketchy neighboorhoods to the West and the Chesapeake Bay to the South. Unless you have galoshes.

To the East, the brave will find Fells Point and the American Tattoo Museum.