For many years, I’ve somehow found myself walking up Mulberry Street, popping into the same shops, seeing the same people, and eating at the same restaurants, multiple times a week. It’s a habit that formed when I wasn’t looking, and nowadays my legs go into autopilot as I cross through Little Italy en route to SoHo. It’s my form of meditation. It feels like a friend. However, every September, Mulberry Street’s quaint charm goes missing as the San Gennaro festival kicks into high gear.

It is without question that the festival that celebrates the patron saint of Naples is not the most Italian thing outside of Italy itself, but it does do the trick for an Italian American experience. Pedestrians can meander in carless streets, just like they do in Naples, drinking tequila out of raw coconuts, devouring corn on the cob, and throw some dull darts at balloons in exchange for stuffed animals.