Little Italy is a neighborhood located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
Situated just east of the Inner Harbor, it has one of the city's busiest restaurant districts. It is so named because of the large number of Italian immigrant families that moved into the area during the 20th century. The neighborhood is still home to a large and active Italian ethnic community. Located near newly desirable neighborhoods like Fells Point, Upper Fells Point and Harbor East, Little Italy's housing market is very hot, not least because turnover is low in the tight-knit community. Little Italy is also notable as one of the safest neighborhoods in the city of Baltimore, as the neighborhood's reputation is such to not allow crimes against the residents caused by outside agitators.
Little Italy is only a few blocks from the Shot Tower/Market Place station on the Baltimore Metro Subway and the southern terminus of the Jones Falls Expressway (I-83).
Each summer, the Little Italy community hosts an outdoor film festival. Free outdoor movies are projected onto a wall at the intersection of High and Stiles Streets. People bring chairs and blankets and watch the movie from a parking lot located at the intersection. Open Air Movie Schedule.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi grew up in Baltimore's Little Italy. Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., was mayor of the city.
According to Homicide: Life on the Street, fictional detective Al Giardello was raised in Little Italy, as it was the neighborhood inhabited by his father's side of the family. Giardello's mother's side of the family was from a neighboring African American housing project called the Perkins Homes.
Nora Roberts book Blue Smoke was set in Baltimore's Little Italy.