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A Visit to Rome’s Little Italy District By Suzi Anderson, planetutica.org
Rome’s “Little Italy” is newly expanded, historic and rapidly growing. The Little Italy district includes the Savoy Restaurant, a third generation Italian landmark owned by the Destito family and The Plaza Restaurant, opened in 1907, celebrating 100 years in business this year.
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PlanetUtica.Org’s Suzi Anderson outside Rocco Gualtieri’s Italian Market, located in Rome’s Little Italy” district.
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Certainly, the “crown jewel” of Rome’s Little Italy district is the historic and updated Gualtieri’s Italian Market, which was recently restored by Rocco Gualtieri and reopened with the assistance of Rome’s Main Street Alliance project.
I consider myself to be a lucky woman. I'm from a family with strong ties and recently I was able to spend time with Ron, my oldest nephew, when we paid a personal visit to Rocco Gualtieri's Italian Market part of Rome, New York's newly designated “Little Italy”. Walking through the front door of this third generation family-owned business is like stepping into the past. David Gualtieri and his wife Carla are the present day shop keeps and owners. Their business partner is David's godson, Greg Sacco along with his daughter, Christa.
Much of the décor is as it was in the original store; there are original ironworks located at the cashier’s counter, Rocco Gualtieri's original bank safe was modified to fit in place in one of the walls (reminding us of a time when the store was also a bank), and above our heads spans a replica of the original tin ceiling (see below for close-up). To authentically replicate the tin ceiling’s design, a piece of the original tin ceiling was shipped to Ohio and reproduced for the current store.
The store is filled with wonderful, authentic Italian foods including barrels filled with olives and dried beans, shelves lined with oils, tomatoes, herbs and spices and a variety of dried pastas. The mouth-watering deli has a wide variety of Italian meats and aromatic, delicious cheeses.
David comes from a family that has always worked hard. David's grandfather, Rocco Gualtieri, came to America in 1901 with Mary Angela. In 1902 they bought their first piece of property on Rome’s Dominick Street. He turned it into a store, selling imported delicacies to the Italian community. He was a busy, multi-talented man. He also served the community as a travel agent, a banker and provided assistance with legal matters. Whenever you visit Rome, NY, please pay a visit to Little Italy and the newly updated and historic Gualtieri's Grocery Store.
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