Little Italy trip: Bon appetito!

This article originally ran in Lynbrook High School’s newspaper, “Horizon.”

The Italian classes at Lynbrook High School follow many traditions throughout the year, and perhaps among the most well known are the various field trips taken.
Lenny Bruno’s 5A class and Maddalena Coletta’s 4A class made a journey to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx recently, accompanied by Mike Harrison, the school’s librarian.
The classes prepared for the trip by first learning about the history of the area. Arthur Avenue is located within the Belmont area of The Bronx, which stretches from Fordham Road to Crescent Ave, between Southern Boulevard and Hoffman Street. Arthur Avenue was first settled about 100 years ago by Italians arriving on boats at Ellis Island. Known as the “Little Italy” of the Bronx, th avenue thrives off of the traditional Italian lifestyle similar to that back in Italian hometowns. The streets are lined with shop after shop, hosting family named stores like “Cosenza’s,” “Umberto’s,” “Randazzo’s” and “Palumbo’s,” which sell everything from homemade pasta, to freshly cut meats, to sea urchins and whole fish.
The first stop of the trip was made at “Egidio Pastry Shop,” where students got to experience a real Italian “pasticceria.” Through a quick tour of the back rooms of the bakery, students were able to see green Christmas cookies in the oven, and some even bought hot cups of cinnamon cappuccino. Before boarding the bus to return home, some bought cannolis, Neapolitans, decorated butter cookies and various other treats.
Next, the group made the quick walk to the Belmont Branch Library, where they watched a short video showing an overview of the area of Arthur Avenue and various areas around the Bronx. Also, many flipped through Italian books and magazines, while others looked at the large collection of Italian movies.