Mott St, Little Italy

Mott is one of the Little Italy streets of Little Italy. It has a ton of Italian restaurants, a ton of Italians and a ton of tourists. Despite the massive amounts of people, though, I like Mott street. It's very old world feeling and has a great energy and great food.
Right at Houston there are some boutiques on the corner giving the lingering Nolita kind of feel to the street. There's a Calypso, Rebecca Taylor, etc kind of thing happening right here, and the shopping lingers for a while into the neighborhood though the aesthetic turns very Little Italy very abruptly about half way down the first block with St Patrick's Cathedral. St Patrick's is NY's first Catholic Cathedral built in 1809. It's not the prettiest church from the outside (I like Gothic structures more than this style) but it's everything you want as far as an old Catholic haunt goes on the inside. It actually looks haunting on the inside which I love: I think that's because there's hardly ever anyone in the joint. It really is beautiful. Across the street from the Cathedral, there's a gorgeous Victorian building that was built at the end of the 19th century as a school. I think it's apartments now but the exterior of the building is stunning, though I think kind of scary looking for young children. The end of the block houses Cafe Gitane, a very trendy restaurant that has, in my opinion, sub par food but a great vibe. I don't know very many people that don't love this place.
Across Prince, there's another school on the corner (Martin Scorcese went here) and some great little boutiques like Only Hearts and Sigerson Morrison. There's also a Mexican joint called Pinche's that while very out of place, is quite good and pretty cheap.
Once you cross Spring, you run into the famous Lombardi's pizza. This is claimed to be the oldest pizza restaurant in the city and it is always packed to the gills with mostly tourists. I know a lot of New Yorkers that believe it's the best pizza in the city as well, though. It's pretty good, but I don't know that it's worth the wait I've always had here. I do really like the energy, though. It has been running, though not in this spot, since the late 19th century so their pizza had better be good, right? This block is predominantly little restaurants and cafes but they are completely overshadowed by Lombardi's. I like the look and feel of this block with all of the restaurant awnings so I hope the pizza place doesn't hurt their businesses.
Once you cross Broome, the street starts to blend into a Chinatown deal but there are still some Italian businesses. There's a great cheese shop on the corner and a fish market, but that's about it in a sea of Asian eateries and shops. Chinatown is really starting to creep into Little Italy which is a shame because the neighborhood is so small already.
I wouldn't mind on Mott but the buildings with elevators are pretty rare and some people aren't into that. The apartments are, generally, really small too because they're so old and were constructed when this neighborhood was a ghetto. It can be very crowded, loud and dirty but the energy is great and I like old stuff.