New York’s other Little Italy
While Manhattan’s better-known Little Italy is shrinking to nothing, New York City’s “real Little Italy” is thriving in the Bronx, said Sarah DiLorenzo in the Associated Press. Commonly referred to as Arthur Avenue—after its main thoroughfare—this neighborhood is home to “dozens of Italian restaurants, bakeries, butchers, and produce stands” that all take pride in their authenticity. “In recent years, the area has been getting more attention.” New York’s visitors bureau pushes tourists there, and the annual Ferragosto street fair “has grown from drawing a few thousand to 17,000 last year.” Unquestionably, what attracts most visitors is the food. Popular choices include the ricotta and mozzarella at Calandra’s, the sausage at Peter’s Meat Market, and the savory biscotti from Madonia Brothers bakery—“made from their famous olive or multigrain breads and laced with rock salt.” As Peter Servedio, one of the owners of Peter’s, says, “You can’t get this at the supermarket.”
Eagle-watching in Illinois
Every winter, the tiny hamlet of Grafton, Ill., becomes a gathering place for bald eagles, said Becky Krystal in The Washington Post. As the waters of their Canadian breeding grounds and the upper Great Lakes freeze, eagles fly south, traveling down the Mississippi in search of food. They flock to the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary, a 3,700-acre stretch of land 20 miles north of St. Louis. “Sheer cliffs of limestone” eventually give way to fields, marshes, and wide-open spaces perfect for bird-watching. A guide and his tour group took me under their wing, and together we crisscrossed the area for nearly six hours. We spotted eagles in flight, swooping in on prey, and shuffling along atop chunks of ice “like expectant fathers pacing around a hospital waiting room.” Yet, even after spotting 40 birds, “the novelty of seeing bald eagles never wore off.” There’s “not much more majestic than the sight of bald eagles soaring high above the bluffs of the Mississippi River.”
