New York City Mafia Tour with Food Tastings: the Insider’s Story
Get the insider's perspective on the infamous Mafia crime families of New York City on this walking tour with two sit-down tastings included, through the vibrant and fascinating gangland area of New York’s East Village and Little Italy. On your tour, you will:
- Enjoy the attention of your local guide.
- Uncover Crime Family member hang-outs, where they ate, partied and ran their elusive "family businesses". Visit the locations most don’t even know exist. From Prohibition-era bootlegging operations run by the Mafia to the former Gambino headquarters "The Ravenite Social Club", while hearing about Mafia business dealings from money laundering and racketeering to narcotics and assassinations.
- Tour the East Village where you will learn the complex origins of the Mafia in New York City, and learn the hierarchies within each crime family from the foot soldiers, to the captains and the ‘Boss’.
- Walk in the footsteps of famed mobsters like Lucky Luciano, Joe ‘the boss’ Masseria, John Gotti – the Teflon Don, “Vinny the Chin” and “Crazy Joe” Gallo, as you hear about their lives, and their crimes.
- Learn about the Mafia ‘omerta’ blood oath initiations for recruits, the ‘unwritten rules’ and ‘sit downs’.
- Visit local, historic food joints --including the room where the Mafia was formed -- for Italian style dinner tastings, including a "primo" and a "secondo piatto". Any drinks you wish to have, you may purchase on the day of the tour.
- End your tour with a delicious ‘dolce’, a cream-filled Sicilian Cannoli at the best pastry shop in town.
The stories of the violent and elusive underworld of the Mafia have captivated each of us – with a whole genre of movies and novels dedicated to New York’s gangsters. On this tour, you immerse yourself in that world, become familiar with the characters, their history, the places, and the unbelievable real-life events thanks to the insider information shared with our small team of expert guides, by a retired Detective and former associate of the Mafia.
On this tour, you will learn about the Mafia’s origins in the early twentieth century, from their inception of factional wars with one another. That bloody power struggle ended in 1931 when ‘Lucky’ Luciano and fellow Mafia bosses formed the ‘Commission’ of the five New York crime families. ‘Cosa Nostra’ was born, in a discreet back room – where you will eat your first course and begin your journey through New York’s gangland.
Learn about the most notorious gangsters and their crimes at the very places where they lived, worked, parties were murdered or arrested. Hitmen like Umberto Valenti ‘the Ghost’ (because he was so quick at disappearing after a shoot out), crazy Joe Gallo, Vinny the Chin – who walked around town in his pyjamas and dressing gown muttering to himself, faking madness to avoid arrest for decades – and John Gotti, known as the ‘Teflon Don’ for his long evasion of the police. Hear about the highest-ranking Mafia turncoat: Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, Gotti’s under-boss, whose confession finally landed Gotti in jail.
If you’re into criminal history, the Mafia, or gangsters, then this larger-than-life tour will more than deliver. You’ll hear about the spying, the escapes, the hitmen, drug running, double-crossing, criminality and all the drama of this most sinister yet riveting world of gangsters, while also indulging in delicious Italian food at some of Little Italy’s best joints.
