2013 NYC by Train 13 - China and Italy

The WTC Path led us out of the part to the corner of Greenwich and Liberty Streets where we happened by the FDNY Memorial Wall. It is a 56-foot long bronze sculpted wall on the side of the Ladder Company 10 Engine 10 Firehouse. It remembers and honors the 343 firefighters who perished in the 9-11 collapse of the towers. The names and photos of each are listed there. The bronze depicts the struggles these fine men and women went through in the battle to save lives. This was not our last thought, but our last physical glimpse of the 9-11 story today.

Our plan was to walk back to the hotel through Chinatown and Little Italy, so we checked our NYC Travel Advisory Bureau map for the best route. It is quite detailed and pointed out many interesting places along the way. We started north on Broadway heading in the direction of Chinatown on the map. The varied and interesting architecture kept our attention.

We came across a little farmer's market along Broadway, selling fresh fruits and veggies and crafts. We browsed there for a minute and then noticed an especially imposing building ahead us at the end of Chalmers Street. From notations on our map, we thought we had discovered City Hall. All eyes were on that magnificent building, but we found out later that this was actually the NYC Municipal Building.

We missed City Hall completely. Turns out it was a much smaller (but still impressive) building within the little park next to the produce stands. We were so mesmerized by the Municipal Building that we made assumptions. Not good. Anyway today I learned the real scoop while doing some fact-checking. 


Anyway, the Municipal Building was built between 1909-1914. Per their website, it is among the largest government office buildings in the world, housing over 2,000 employees from a dozen municipal agencies in nearly 1 million square feet of office space. It is 25 floors high with 33 elevators. There are an additional 15 stories in the central tower. The building is rich in art and architectural details. A most impressive building for this most impressive city.


As we had our destination in mind and not so much time, we didn't go inside except for the official City Souvenir Store. I got an "I Love NY" t-shirt and we bought an "A" rated dishtowel for our gourmet cook friend Susan. Her kitchen and the food that she creates is actually A++, but they don't have a rating for that.

We had wondered about the letter placards we saw in restaurant windows. Turns out the City restaurant inspectors make unannounced visits at least once a year to each restaurant in NYC!! Based on a point system, each is given a designation of A, B or C rating (C being the lowest). This does not account for how good the food tastes, but mostly cleanliness.

For more info about the restaurant rating system, read: www.nyc.gov/html/doh/down .


For photos and info about the actual City Hall see, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Hall . 

For more info regarding the the Municipal Building above, go to: www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/about/man_munibldg.shtml


We continued a few blocks up Centre Street, passing more old and imposing edifices. This housed historic churches and courthouses. We walked by a small park where they were filming a movie. We craned our necks to spot a famous actor, but no luck there.

At Canal Street we turned right and entered the Chinatown area. I say "area" because after living near San Francisco's Chinatown, this seemed minuscule. Buildings did not have the Asian flair we were used to. There were several nice fish markets, gold shops, and varied Asian-style (Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese) restaurants, but all in all we were a bit let down. The aromas there were wonderful though.

We wandered a bit further and came to Mulberry Street with its big Welcome to Little Italy sign. Now we're talking. The street was more lively with people, shops, cafes, green-white-red (Italian colors) everywhere. Even the fire escapes were delicately designed with artistic curlicues. Again, not quite as authentic feeling as San Fran's North Beach, but pretty close. We were happy.


We wandered up and down Mulberry, the main street for the area and onto some side streets. We stepped into a few stores including a hallway-sized wine shop and La Bella Ferrara, a wonderful Italian bakery. We noticed signs saying that Bertolli was the official olive oil of Little Italy. Yep, we use that brand all the time.

There were so many inviting restaurants to choose from, we just could not make up our minds. To settle the question, we decided to call our friend Al Ceniglio, whom Mike had worked with for over 20 years in San Francisco. Al grew up in this area and visited many times over the years. We figured he would have a good recommendation. He was so excited to know that we were in his Little Italy on Mulberry Street at that very moment. He was also sad to report that Italian town had been ten times this size when he was growing up. It looked now to be maybe a 6-block area. We had a great talk, reminiscing about here and about San Fran. But, alas, he had no particular restaurant recommendation.

So Mike and I ventured back down Mulberry and stepped into Cafe Napoli. We figured we couldn't go wrong no matter where we ate. This particular place had a nice outside table, young dark curly-haired Italian waiters, and maitre d' that looked like a mob boss. It was a good spot to watch the pedestrian traffic and street commotion. It turned out to have excellent food and cheap entertainment.

We started with Bellinis (an Italian cocktail made with fresh and "healthy" peach juice and champagne). We shared a caprese salad (fresh and thick slabs of buffalo mozzarella cheese, tomato slices, basil leave slivers all drizzled in olive oil and served with a fresh baked baguette). Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is just writing about it.

For our main course, Mike chose his favorite chicken piccata (in lemon sauce) and Peroni Italian beer, while I had eggplant parmigiana with a glass of wonderful Sangiovese (red) wine. We topped off the meal with dessert, of course. Mike had very traditional spumoni (Italian ice cream) and I had a cannollo. All was delicioso!! We were the most stuffed we had been on our whole trip so far.

We were still talking about our meal as we waddled north toward our hotel. The Empire State building was our guide. See it towering in the background of this photo.

We passed by so many interesting things--many murals, street artists and musicians, quaint news stands like you would see in the movies, public works of art, the Woolworth Building (a cashier in Woolworth's was the second job I had as a kid), the flagship of the Brooks Brothers clothing store (you must be a little older to recognize that name), parks, street food vendors, and so much interesting architecture. We meandered passed the Empire State building with its King Kong history. No sign of ol' K.K. here today.  

It was a LONG walk back to 42th Street, but a lovely day. So much to see, smell, hear, that our feet did not hurt until we sat down in our hotel room. Then, oh, boy, they were talking back to us big time. Sore and aching, it had been a full day and our stomachs were certainly still full. We decided to lay low for the rest of the evening. Watched a little TV, reviewed the highlights of our wild and crazy time here, and organized our bags as we had to depart the next day. Before we new it, we were soundly asleep.