NYC: Little Italy Mafia Walking Tour

Explore Little Italy on a walking tour and uncover the truth behind Mafia legends. Visit former social clubs, homes, and sites of notorious mob hits.

Challenge everything you know about organized crime in America on a walking tour through Little Italy. Explore the former social clubs, homes, and haunts of some of the most influential 20th-century mobsters, while uncovering the truth behind many Mafia legends. Discuss the Italian immigrant experience and the social, political, and economic conditions which allowed organized gangsterism to thrive in the slums of New York City by the turn of the century. Visit former mafia social clubs, the former homes and businesses of influential mobsters, sites of notorious mob hits, and the former Sicilian and Neapolitan districts of Little Italy. Step inside a famous former speakeasy and see the “Black Hand Block” and the “Curb Exchange,” an open-air alcohol market during Prohibition. See the Ravenite Social Club, the Little Italy restaurant district, and movie locations where Godfather, Sopranos, Mean Streets, Donnie Brasco, and more were filmed. Discuss the seeds of Cosa Nostra in Sicily, Italian immigration, the roots of the Mafia in America, the origins of the “Five Families,” the mob’s role during Prohibition, the nationalization of organized crime, and the truth about Hollywood mob movies. Your Guide: Eric Ferrara is founder of the Lower East Side History Project, a 7-time published author and native New Yorker whose family goes back four generations in Little Italy. He is the founder of the Museum of the American Gangster, the Lower East Side Welcome Center and East Village Visitor Center. Eric has worked as a consultant on several movie & tv projects including History Channel, Netflix’s The Irishman, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, AMC’s Making of the Mob, and Warner Brothers’ new Great Gatsby. His books include Manhattan Mafia Guide.