There’s no need to travel overseas for a taste of authentic Italian cuisine. Did you know that Maryland is home to its very own Little Italy? That’s right — this colorful neighborhood is jam-packed with Italian restaurants galore. Spend the weekend here to try as many of them as you can. These local restaurants are all so delicious, so come hungry,...

Until I got my DNA results a few years ago, I was convinced — due entirely to family pride, the family tree and my nonna’s pronunciation of particular words — that I was at the very least a quarter Italian. After all, we made pizzelles every Christmas alongside sugar cookies and my grandmother pronounced prosciutto “pro-SHOOT” and called the cheese...

"My paternal grandparents were born in Cefalu, Sicily, a small town in the Province of Palermo. They separately immigrated to the U.S. and ended up in Baltimore, and married at St. Leo's in June 1917. I have been conducting family research for several years and came across a 1928 article from the Baltimore Sun.  I was thinking about how many ancest...

Baltimore fiction readers may not know Rosalia Scalia’s name, but they should. An award-winning local short story writer, the Little Italy native’s work has appeared in numerous literary magazines over the years, including the North Atlantic Review, Notre Dame Review, The Portland Review, and closer to home, The Loch Raven Review. Her story “Sister...

Next time you're in the neighborhood, stroll a block east of St. Leo's Church to Stiles & Lloyd Streets to view this stunning 3D mural painted by internationally acclaimed muralist, CarlosAlberto Garcia-Hernandez. Sponsored by Little Italy Madonnari Arts Festival, the artwork was inspired by the Trevi Fountain in Rome and was painted on the wall of...

As the federal Columbus Day holiday approaches, a group of Italian Americans in Baltimore are continuing to raise money to build a replica of the Christopher Columbus statue that was torn down and thrown into the Inner Harbor last summer. The replica is almost complete and and should be done by the end of October, said Bill Martin, an organizer of...

The two day Italian Heritage FestivaI featured delicious Italian food and desserts, vino and Italian/domestic beer, booths packed with game wheels, local vendors, used books at Stiles and Exeter Streets in Downtown Baltimore. The event also had an indoor sit-down pasta dinner, indoor Bingo in the Little Italy Lodge, roving costumers, live stage mus...

Every September for the past few years Little Italy has hosted the world-famous Madonnari Arts Festival. COVID put the kibosh on that in 2020 and organizers feel it’s still not safe enough to gather. But they’re celebrating art and Italian culture by commissioning a mural–a mural so stunning you have to see it for yourself. “Carlos is an internatio...

Buon 140th anniversario, Saint Leo's ... In the 1880s, the Archdiocese of Baltimore had decided to establish an all-Italian parish as it had earlier for Irish and German immigrants. Generations of Italians have been baptized, confirmed, married and buried from our historic parish of Saint Leo the Great, the first church in Maryland - and among the...

Thomas Bozzuto and Barbara Mancinelli, born six months apart, grew up in hardworking Italian American families in Waterbury, Connecticut, but it’s not like they were childhood sweethearts. He was a public school kid who became captain of his high school football team. She went to Catholic school, a self-described music nerd who studied piano. They...