Danielle invited me to NYC with her and Colleen and Kelly, as they were going to go into the city for a friend of theirs' birthday party in the village. I braved the train and the subway (rode it like I knew what I was doing), and met them down in chinatown.If you ever want to see the craziest stuff EVER, you need to go to chinatown and say the words "couture handbag?" You will see:
a) the insides of vans stuffed with LV purses, complete with a BENCH inside that fits 3; since you are a party of 5, two of you have to meander down the street so the cops don't bust the van people
b) everyone has nextel phones and the people on the main drag look out for the people in the side streets with respect to the cops
c) the craziest back rooms ever - we were in one that was way too warm and then they closed the door and made us all be quiet as the cops were right inside.
But we also did find some great purses, and one Prada one that four of us loved and thus had to buy. I also found some sunglasses, some jewelry and a nice ring - make sure to bring cash when you go!
Little Italy is right next to china town, which is more than slightly odd. The environment is totally different, and you cannot go wrong with any place you choose here - unless you do what we did and choose a place that is BYOB instead of with a liquor license. But, the food was great and the day was beautiful and 70 degrees out in the middle of winter - how can you really complain? 