Here is the New York guide to visit the most desired city in the world. Discovering the Big Apple.
It is the most desired, loved and visited city in the world. New York City for the Italians is the symbol of the United States, especially because here landed the immigrants arriving from Italy and Europe, welcomed by the Statute of Liberty. In search of a better life and fortune in the land of opportunity.
Here we propose the guide to New York, with all the useful information to know and visit the great American metropolis.
New York guide: how to visit the most beloved city in the world
The Big Apple, this is the nickname, now abused, of New York City, proverbially known as the city that never sleeps. The metropolis par excellence of the United States. The city coveted by all, both as a tourist destination and for work and life. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, sings Liza Minnelli New York, New York, the famous song (successfully reinterpreted by Frank Sinatra) from Martin Scorsese’s 1977 film of the same name. A true hymn to the city.
And here, as soon as they disembarked at Ellis Island, after having passed in front of the Statue of Liberty, millions of immigrants, many of them Italian, who arrived on these shores between the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s, placed their hopes for a better life. Many were able to realize their dreams and make their fortune, others were sent back, many others were swallowed up by the history and events of this country. Most of the Italians who settled here have maintained strong emotional ties with the motherland, with a strong nostalgia. All of them, however, have become Americans and even if they bear Italian surnames, know a few words of our language and have maintained some distant traditions, especially in the kitchen, they remain Americans with their own particular culture.
For these reasons, to talk about New York one cannot but speak of Italians, or Italian Americans. Italians, African Americans, Germans, Poles, Jews, Chinese and so on, the inhabitants of New York carry with them the DNA, cultures and colors of the whole world. Without the melting pot, New York would not exist.
Guide to New York: history
Colonized first by the Dutch and then by the British, New York, which at the beginning included mainly the territory of Manhattan, was sighted for the first time by the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano, to whom is named the bridge at the entrance of the bay, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Staten Island to Brooklyn, crossing the arm of the sea The Narrows. The Verrazano Bridge opened in 1964, is 1.6 km long and almost 70 meters high. It is crossed by participants in the New York Marathon, which starts right from Staten Island. Some memorable scenes of the Bridge are filmed in the movie Saturday Night Fever.
The Verrazano Bridge, New York
In 1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to enter New York Bay, but the first real discoverer of Manhattan Island and explorer of the area was in 1609 Henry Hudson, who gave his name to the river that flows into the bay and divides New York from New Jersey. The first colonization of Manhattan took place in 1913 with the Dutch, who called the island New Amsterdam. Manhattan was not uninhabited, on the island and along the low course of the Hudson River lived groups of native Lenape, who unfortunately over time were driven away by European settlers. In 1664 the city of New Amsterdam was conquered by the English who renamed it with the current name of New York, in honor of James II, Duke of York. The rest is modern day history.
The greatness of New York dates back to the dawn of the twentieth century, when the American city, thanks to its industries and its great economic growth, ousted London from the podium of the most important city in the world from an economic and financial point of view. It was during this period that the great skyscrapers were built. The first was the Woolworth Building, a neo-gothic style building started in 1910 and finished in 1913, it overlooks Broadway, in the area of Lower Manhattan.
Throughout its history, New York has had to face dramatic moments: the financial crisis of 1929, followed by the Great Depression, the crisis of the ’70s, with a drastic decline in population. In October 2012, the city and its surroundings were severely hit by Hurricane Sandy, flooding even some parts of Lower Manhattan.
The most tragic and dramatic event, however, remains the attack of September 11, 2001, when two airliners hijacked by a terrorist commando crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, causing its collapse and the death of about 3 thousand people.
The most serious terrorist attack against the city and the entire country. The World Trade Center Towers were the highest and most scenic point in New York City. Built between 1964 and 1973 they were more than 400 meters high. On the 107th floor of the North Tower was the Windows on the World restaurant, an exceptional vantage point overlooking the Empire State Building, which has always been the symbol of New York.
The Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in New York, unmistakably dominating the skyline. Today in their place towers over the World Trade Center the One World Trade Center tower, also known as the Freedom Tower, inaugurated in 2014. A skyscraper covered entirely in glass, it is the fourth tallest in the world at 541 meters. In the place where the Twin Towers stood, a memorial for the victims of September 11 was built with a museum next to it, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Impressive are the large black basins of the fountains, where water flows continuously along the walls, in what were once the foundations of the two Towers. On the edges of the fountains are engraved the names of the victims of the attack.
What to see in New York
The city of New York has a lot to offer and the list of places to see is truly endless. In addition to the places we mentioned above, such as the Verrazano Bridge, the new World Trade Center and the memorial for the victims of September 11, the first place that comes to mind when talking about New York is definitely the Empire State Building. New York’s old skyscraper has once again become the city’s landmark since the 9/11 attack. Built between 1930 and 1931 in Art Deco style, the Empire is 381 meters high to the roof and reaches 443.2 meters with the antenna. It celebrated its 90th birthday in 2021.
The Empire State Buiding was the tallest skyscraper in the world from 1931 until the Twin Towers were built. Its line, with the large antenna towering above it, is unmistakable in the New York City sky. The skyscraper reaches 103 floors. On the 86th is the observation deck, which is visited by about 3 million people each year, while on the 102nd is the observatory, where a new vantage point with floor-to-ceiling windows opened in October 2019.
The Empire stands in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. At night it is illuminated with lights of different colors depending on the occasion. The Empire State Building is open every day of the year, even on holidays, from 10 am to 9 pm. For information: official website.
The places of the Italians
Italian tourists in Manhattan cannot miss Little Italy, the historic neighborhood inhabited by Italian immigrants, in Lower Manhattan. The neighborhood lies between Lafayette St to the west, Bowery St to the east, Canal St to the south and Broome St to the north. To tell the truth, there is very little left of the Italian spirit in this neighborhood, apart from a few traces of folklore and a few historic places, especially restaurants. The old Italian neighborhood has been incorporated by Chinatown, the area of Chinese immigrants. Then gentrification, with rising real estate prices, drove away many descendants of the old Italian immigrants, leaving room for banks and commercial buildings.
Brooklyn is the other area of New York heavily populated by Italians. An autonomous city until 1898, the borough of Brooklyn is characterized by its red brick houses. The symbol of this part of the city is certainly the famous Brooklyn Bridge that connects the borough with the southern tip of Manhattan Island, crossing the East River. The Bridge was completed in 1883 and is characterized by its two large double-arched granite towers. Another famous bridge that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan, near the Brooklyn Bridge is the Manhattan Bridge. It is also possible to visit Brooklyn with bus tours with stops at historic pizzerias.
In the bay of New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River rises on the little island of Liberty Island the very famous Statue of Liberty, gift of the French to the Americans to celebrate their independence. The statue, designed by the Frenchman Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, consists of an internal steel lattice structure covered with 300 sheets of shaped copper. It was inaugurated in 1886. You can visit the Statue of Liberty by climbing to the pedestal and then by elevator to the inside of the crown. There is also a park and a museum on Liberty Island. Info on the official website.
Next to the Statue of Liberty there is Ellis Island, the island where the ships of emigrants arriving from Europe landed. Here the aspiring new Americans were subjected to severe and humiliating health checks.
Their story and the story of immigration to the United States are told in the museum that now stands on the Island, Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. Information on this page.
Times Square is the focal point of New York. It is located in Midtown Manhattan and is formed by the intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue at 45th Street. It is the square where New Year’s Eve is celebrated in New York, in a party attended by tens of thousands of people. It has also become one of the symbols of the end of World War II with the famous photo of the sailor kissing the nurse during the celebrations for the end of the war. Times Square was originally called Longacre Square, the current name dates back to 1904 when the headquarters of The New York Times newspaper moved to the newly constructed Times Building, now called One Times Square.
The 5th Avenue, Fifth Avenue, is another New York must-see, here face the elegant boutiques, with the most famous names in fashion and the most popular clubs. On Quints Starda there is also the Catholic Cathedral of St. Patrick. Across the street, a few steps further south is the famous Rockefeller Center, where at Christmas the big illuminated tree is lit and there is an ice skating rink. A place made immortal by many films.
A visit to New York must include a stop in Central Park, the green lung of the city. Opened in 1857, it is located in Uptown Manhattan, between the two residential neighborhoods, the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side, which take their name from their position in relation to the park. The park is home to a lake, a few ponds and real woods. Here there are several clubs and famous restaurants. In the southern area there is the Central Park Zoo while in the central part, overlooking 5th Avenue, there is the Met, Metropolitan Museum of Art. A little further north is the Guggenheim Museum. Central Park is the finishing point of the Marathon.
There’s more to New York City than just Central Park. Manhattan is home to other smaller parks and gardens. While other larger ones can be found in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and on Staten Island. New York is a much greener city than you might imagine and its parks are all worth discovering. The city parks are managed by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, which organizes many activities for families and children.
Fun Places
New York City is known as the city that never sleeps, so its range of entertainment venues is truly endless. In addition to the most famous places, such as Times Square and Broadway, where you can watch plays and musicals, we also remember Lincoln Center, with its many concert halls, and Madison Square Garden, the stadium of the local basketball and field hockey teams, and place of great concerts.
If you’re looking for the New York of artists, you can’t miss visiting Greenwich Village, on the west side of Lower Manhattan. The center of the neighborhood is the historic Washington Square, with the famous white arch immortalized in many films. In this area of Manhattan you will find many clubs, bars and jazz clubs.
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The city offers an unlimited number of restaurants, from pizzerias to luxury Italian restaurants. Here you can eat food from all over the world. Even the most important and exclusive places of the city, however, can be accessible. Periodically, in fact, is organized the NYC Restaurant Week, the week of sales in restaurants. During the initiative you can taste the dishes of the most important chefs of the city at affordable prices.
Things to do for free in New York.
Museums
The museums of New York not to be missed in addition to the Metropolitan Museum of Art — MET and the Guggenheim Museum, are certainly the MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, the Museum of The City of New York, the American Museum of Natural History, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Neue Galerie and also the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum.
Guide to New York: practical information
Some useful information about seeing New York: when to go, how to get to the city and how to get around.
When to go
New York can be visited in all seasons, however the summers are scorching and the winters harsh. The ideal periods are therefore in spring and autumn. Especially in autumn, the city is dressed in beautiful colors, thanks to the spectacle of foliage in its parks.
Transportation
New York is served by two main airports: LaGuardia and JFK, where planes from all over the world land. The other major airport serving the metropolis is Newark in New Jersey.
Within the city the network of public transport is vast. One travels mainly by subway. There are also ferry connections with New Jersey cities on the opposite side of the Hudson.
Documentation required
The documentation needed to go to New York is the one required for the United States. That is the passport, even without a visa with electronic travel authorization, ESTA if you meet the requirements.
As the Farnesina’s Viaggiare Sicuri website explains: to enter the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), in which Italy also participates, it is necessary to obtain an ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) authorization. The authorization, which is valid for two years, or until the expiry of the passport, must be obtained before boarding the means of transport, air or sea, en route to the United States by accessing, at least 72 hours before departure, through the Internet to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) — site https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov .
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