from italy to Baltimore (Mount Vernon: apartment, vacation, work)

[seastar]

Hi! I'm an Italian girl who is coming to Baltimore for a couple of month, to attend John Hopkins university. I’d like to have some information about city and it’s life… how to move, where to stay, what’s interesting to do…what not whatever could be useful to know . And maybe I’d like to meet some Italian people that work/study there!

[steller]

Seaster there is a little area in Baltimore called Little Italy most residents there are Italians of 2 or 3rd generation familys from Italy.There is also many Italian eateries there and I dout any speak Italian sense most are 3rd generation Italian American.But I think pointing this area out will make you fell more at home even though most people in the area won't be speaking Italian.

[Tallybalt]

Eh, Little Italy won't seem "Italian" for most people from Italy. It's very "Italian-American." If our lass here is from northern Italy, then Baltimore's Little Italy with its southern Italian roots may appear to be an amusing caricature of Italian-American stereotypes.

Back to the original poster: Baltimore is a pleasant place with a relatively low cost of living. Hopkins-Homewood is in a nice part of the city, and the community of graduate students (including international graduate students) at Hopkins-Homewood and Hopkins-Medical School campus is rather large.

If you are looking for a place to live near the Homewood campus, I suggest Charles Village or Tuscany Canterbury. Rents are relatively affordable, especially if you don't mind sharing an apartment with roommates. If you want a more urban atmosphere, then Mount Vernon is an exciting neighborhood with restaurants and bars and nightclubs in a historic setting. If you are studying at the medical school complex, then you may want to look at Canton and Fells' Point, two waterfront neighborhoods. Fells' Point is the most popular destination for bars and restaurants, and is nestled right on the waterfront. Fells' also has the best gelateria in the city: Pitango Gelatero.

To sum it up: Baltimore is a network of neighborhoods, each with its own distinct identity, and it's a very pleasant place to spend a year or two as a graduate student.

[bawlmer]

Little Italy is becoming littler and littler as it is overtaken by little Central America.

[Be More]

Originally Posted by bawlmer

Little Italy is becoming littler and littler as it is overtaken by little Central America.

Hmmm..I am not recalling a lot of Latino restaurants coming in or around LIttle Italy. The borders are still intact.

[fabirt]

Tallybalt is correct, excellent recommendations. My grandparents from my mom and dad came to New York from Catanzaro and Palermo. I think the closest you will get to the Italian culture is the Italian American culture which is not so quite European. I recommned breaking from your studies and going up to NY City to see Little Italy there.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Originally Posted by bawlmer

Little Italy is becoming littler and littler as it is overtaken by little Central America.

Don't surprise me at all. Many of our inner cities are overrun with illegals and the original Italian Americans most certainly have moved to brighter pastures (or lawns) in the suburbs or out of state.

[barante]

I'm not so presumptions as to suggest that I know seastar's mind, but if she is anything like any other modern European I know (and I am from Europe myself) the last thing she is interested in is Little Italy.
Little Italy is a pictoresque relic. Considering the fact that the 1924 immigration legislation drastically reduced the number of Italians allowed to the U.S. it is not strange at all that it is withering away.

[bawlmer]

That's like going to Italy to visit "Little America."

[Zack]

As an American who lived in Italy for a few years, I appreciated going to restaurants occasionally that served American food, even it was a knockoff. If she was just visiting for a weeks vacation then of course she would mostly want to try American things, but for a long visit she's going to miss home cooking and culture. My fiance is from Italy and she overwhelmingly prefers to get Italian food when we are out even if it's Americanized. Every time we're in NYC, it seems we end up in Little Italy for food.

One thing I can recommend for Italian catholics is there is a mass at the Holy Rosary Church in DC that is spoken in Italian, not sure if there is something similar in Baltimore. There are a decent number of native Italians that attend along with Italian-Americans that still speak Italian as a 2nd language. If you go to the church's website they have links to a number of Italian based societies in the area.