You probably love Italian food, right? Pizza and pasta? How about risotto? Mozzarella cheese? But have you ever tried Cannoli – those crispy dough rolls filled with flavored ricotta cheese?


Italian food is so common that we don’t even think about how it came to the U.S.


About a hundred years ago, two million Italians immigrated to America dreaming of a better life in America, away from poverty and starvation. By 1930, one million Italians had settled in New York City.

But life in NYC was really hard for many of the immigrants. Without much money, they were forced to live in crammed apartments and work long hours in exhausting and dangerous jobs like building the Brooklyn Bridge and Grand Central Terminal. The Italian Mafia’s organized crime added to the immigrants’ hardship.

Today, New York City has the largest Italian population in America, and Italian food has become a staple in New Yorkers’ diets.

 

Italy

Italy is a country in Europe that looks like a boot. It’s surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea and the Adriatic Sea and borders Austria, France, Switzerland and Slovenia. Many famous artists came from Italy. Italian fashion is well known all over the world as is Italy’s soccer teams. The Vatican, an independent state where the Pope, the head of the Catholic church lives, is located in Italy. And a long time ago Rome (Italy’s capital) was a world empire with famous emperors like Julius Cesar. Italians had lots of influence on European history and it’s a very beautiful country to visit.