A century ago, Lindo and Maria Borgatti packed their bags in Bologna, Italy, and sailed over the Atlantic in pursuit of a new life in the United States.
With them, they took Maria Borgatti’s family recipes, which would serve as the groundwork for the small family business they eventually opened on Nov. 28, 1935 on 187th Street in the Bronx — Borgatti’s Ravioli & Egg Noodles.
Across the street at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, their son George was having his wedding.
Decades later, both the church and Borgatti’s are still very much so up and running — in fact, on Friday, Oct. 27, they were included in a guided tour that Italian diplomat Fabrizio Di Michele, the consul general of Italy in New York, took alongside Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and Alyssa Tucker, executive director of the Belmont Business Improvement District (BID), through the Bronx’s Little Italy.
Di Michele, who was born in Palermo in 1969, came to the U.S. and was named consul general in 2021.
A stroll through the Bronx’s Little Italy — arguably the most authentic of the city’s Little Italies — will not only allow you to savor a wide variety of Italian flavors but also give you a taste of the neighborhood’s rich history.
Peter J. Madonia, chairman of the Belmont BID, described Bronx’s Little Italy as a neighborhood “showcasing some of New York City’s most authentic Italian bakeries, pastry shops, fish markets, delis, and artisan merchants, many of which have been owned and operated by the same families that founded them nearly a century ago, or longer.”
One such century-old establishment on Di Michele’s route was Madonia Bakery, founded in 1918 by Belmont BID chairman Peter J. Madonia’s grandfather, Mario Madonia, another Italian immigrant. He operated the bakery with his wife Rose, who went into labor while only 6 months pregnant after a car crashed through the window of the bakery. And thus Peter Madonia — father of Peter J….
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