by Fabio Parasecoli

When friends visit New York City from out of town, especially from Italy, we often end up taking a stroll through Manhattan's Little Italy, which looms large in the imagination of many Italians. Although they have seen it in movies and in TV shows, they tend to have a limited sense of how and why immigrants moved between different neighborhoods over time.

Usually, they have no knowledge of the existence of the "other" Little Italies in the outer boroughs, let alone in places like Philadelphia or Providence. Above all, they are not familiar with the Italian-American culinary world, which they frequently perceive as merely a derivative interpretation of Italian food rather than a long and rich tradition.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/