North Beach in San Francisco

5 December 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit, San Francisco Bay Area, Shopping Reading Time:  7 minutes

© panoramio.com - Almondox/cc-by-3.0

© panoramio.com – Almondox/cc-by-3.0

North Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown, the Financial District, and Russian Hill. The neighborhood is San Francisco’s “Little Italy” and has historically been home to a large Italian American population, largely from Northern Italy. It still has many Italian restaurants, though many other ethnic groups currently live in the neighborhood. It was also the historic center of the beatnik subculture and has become one of San Francisco’s main nightlife districts as well as a residential neighborhood populated by a mix of young urban professionals, families, and Chinese immigrants. The American Planning Association (APA) has named North Beach as one of ten “Great Neighborhoods in America”.   read more…

Cathedral Quarter in Belfast

8 June 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

St. Anne Catherdal - flickr.com - Stuart/cc-by-sa-2.0

St. Anne Catherdal – flickr.com – Stuart/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Cathedral Quarter (Irish: Ceathrú na hArdeaglaise) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a developing area of the city, roughly situated between Royal Avenue near where the Belfast Central Library building is, and the Dunbar Link in the city centre. From one of its corners, the junction of Royal Avenue, Donegall Street and York Street, the Cathedral Quarter lies south and east. Part of the area, centred on Talbot Street behind the cathedral, was formerly called the Half Bap. The “Little Italy” area was on the opposite side of Great Patrick Street centred on Little Patrick Street and Nelson Street. The Cathedral Quarter extends out to the edge of what can be referred as the old merchant quarter of the city. Past where the merchant area meets the Cathedral Quarter is still mostly merchant trade and services orientated and undeveloped for visitor services. The Cathedral Quarter is so called because St Anne’s Cathedral, a Church of Ireland cathedral, lies at its heart.   read more…

Little Italy in New York City

5 April 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City, Shopping Reading Time:  9 minutes

Colour-changing Little Italy sign on Mulberry Street at Broome Street © Jameschecker/cc-by-sa-4.0

Colour-changing Little Italy sign on Mulberry Street at Broome Street © Jameschecker/cc-by-sa-4.0

Little Italy is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City, once known for its large 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. In 2010, Little Italy and Chinatown were listed in a single historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. Little Italy, by this point, was shrinking rapidly.   read more…

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