Between Rosemont Boulevard and Jean-Talon Market, at the end of Mile End, this is Little Italy, or Piccola Italia.
The best time to stroll through Little Italy is during Italfest, a 10-day festival celebrating Italian-Canadian and Italian culture, and the Italian-Montreal community. This year, it’s August 8 to 17, 2025!
Little Italy
Little Italy is a neighborhood intimately linked to the waves of Italian immigration to Canada and Quebec, of which there have been 3 major ones.
First, in the 17th century, when artisans, soldiers and merchants from northern Italy joined the Carignan regiment.
Then in the late 19th century, when southern Italians left a political and economic climate in crisis to seek out the “American dream” of the time; Canadian lumber camps, mines and railroads. At the time, they were on the shores of the St. Lawrence, but soon settled permanently in Montreal, with their wives and children. They lived north of the city, towards Mile End.
Little Italy” was created in the 20th century, when thousands of Italians fleeing World War II and its social and economic consequences joined Montreal’s Italian community.
Pasticceria Alati-Casarta, 277 rue Dante, reputed to be the best cannoli in Quebec
Unfortunately, since the 1980s, the neighborhood has been rapidly gentrifying, and now many of the Italian families who had lived in the area for generations have had to leavePiccola Italia for the suburbs.
Many Italian businesses remain in Little Italy, and the neighborhood persists as the beating heart of Montreal’s Italian-Canadian community. There are Pasticcerias, caffes and restaurants featuring the city’s finest artisans and chefs – with an air of nostalgia that turns some Montreal street corners into space-time rifts to Sorrento or Lampedusa in 1982.
Italfest – August 8 to 17, 2025
The festival dates back to 1993 and is organized by the National Congress of Italian-Canadians. Initially, the festival was called “Italian Week”.
It’s a cultural, musical, gastronomic and cinematographic festival… It’s an opportunity to celebrate Italian and Italian-Canadian culture, to spend time in one of Montreal’s most beautiful neighborhoods , and to live Italian-style for the day -pasta under 40 degrees, espresso or caffè con panna (before 11am), siesta in the shade, amaretto, dolce vita.
Pasta Pooks, 6700 Clark Street
Festival program
There will be a huge number of concerts, workshops and events during the festival, and it’s completely open to all and free of charge.
Our 10 favorite events, and the ones we’re looking forward to, are;
- August 9, 9am : activities at Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, soccer: Italy vs the World
- August 9, 10am-12pm: food writing workshop at Casa del Veneto (7995 Avenue Blaise Pascal)
- August 9, 9:30pm: Moda Sotto le Stelle fashion show (fashion under the stars), presented by the Consulate General of Italy in Montreal
- August 10, 3 p.m.: cannoli competition, presented by Les Délices Lafrenaie
- August 10, 9:30pm: opera gala
- August 12, 1pm-3pm : conference on the Italian pavilion at Expo 67 at MEM -Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises (1210 Boulevard Saint-Laurent)
- August 12, 7-9pm: writing workshop on memories at Casa del Veneto (7995 Avenue Blaise Pascal)
- August 13, 8:50pm: open-air cinema, screening of L’Abbaglio (2025) at Parc Dante
- August 15, 1-4pm: live music by FM Radio, Sir Gio and Gianni Bodo at Promenade Fleury
- August 15, 7pm: cinema, screening of “Un mondo a parte” (2024) at Casa d’Italia (505 rue Jean-Talon Est)
Buono Italfest!