Yet 41% of the North End’s residents are still Italian-American, and its central charms endure. The stout Italian mother calling her son to dinner from the third-floor window? Today, more trope than truth. Tourism ticked up, and these days the area is the most expensive place in the city to rent, with a one-bedroom apartment going for $3,674 in January 2019, according to RentCafe. Maybe too transportative: when Boston’s infamous above-ground Southeast Expressway came down in 2003, removing a literal shadow, the area was discovered anew. With its indelible food scene, endless festivals, and coterie of Italian elders sitting in streetside lawn chairs, the neighborhood feels transportative.
Nowadays the North End draws droves of both tourists visiting for the day and young professionals looking for their first Boston apartment.
