East Portal Park was busy on Monday morning, with children bounding through the playground and the soft clunking of bocce balls echoing from the nearby courts.
Amidst all the activity, Bill Cerruti, president of the Italian Cultural Society of Sacramento, pointed out the signpost marking the corner of Rodeo Way and L Street. At the apex sat a new sign topper, emblazoned with a shield-shaped medallion in the colors of the Italian flag and the words “Sacramento Little Italy.”
Cerruti and city councilmember Phil Pluckebaum were in the park to announce the installation of 10 sign toppers and seven banners around the Little Italy neighborhood in East Sacramento.
A new sign designating the Little Italy Historic District at the corner of Rodeo Way and L Street in East Sacramento on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com 
A new sign designating the Little Italy Historic District hangs along Folsom Boulevard in East Sacramento on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
When the area was officially designated as the Little Italy Historic District in 2021, seven large metal signs around the neighborhood alerted residents and visitors that they were within Sacramento’s historically Italian enclave. The neighborhood’s Italian character was firmly established by the 1960s, and immigrants grew market gardens, started businesses, and some even built homes from stone quarried from what is now East Portal Park.
Today’s official Little Italy is bounded between 48th, 59th, and J streets, and Folsom Boulevard, and many Italian-Americans still live and own businesses in the area, said Italian Cultural Society member Steve Maviglio.
The signage, he continued, “is part of a much bigger effort to recognize the history of the area.”
Cerruti agreed. “We have a big history here, and we took it for granted,” he told reporters during Monday’s unveiling, adding that the nearby St. Mary’s Catholic Church, erected in 1948, was “built with Italian-American money.”
Italian Cultural Society of Sacramento President Bill Cerrutti and City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum embrace during an event hanging new signs designating the Little Italy Historic District in East Sacramento on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
Along with more signage, Cerruti said, the Society is currently collecting materials for a “grand exhibition” on the Italian-Americans of East Sacramento that he said is slated for October. That’s just one of the current plans the organization has, and others are even more ambitious. “We still lack a community center,” Cerruti said.
Nearby, within the shaded courts of the East Portal Bocce Club, Al Velasquez, one of the club’s directors, and member David Zaffa alternated between tossing bocce balls and watching the proceedings. “That’s pretty cool,” said Velasquez, peering at the new pole topper across the street.
According to Velasquez, the Club has called East Portal Park home for more than 50 years. “This is deep Italian here,” he said, gesturing to the bocce courts and the neighborhood beyond. Velasquez himself is not of Italian heritage, but bocce, he said, is “something anybody can play.”
Still, he added, many of the 500 members of the Club are Italian. “Third and fourth generations are playing here.”
Al Velasquez and David Zaffa play bocce at East Portal Park in East Sacramento on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. The bocce court is a focal point in East Sacramento’s historic Italian neighborhood. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
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Anne Ewbank is a service journalist and food reporter for The Sacramento Bee. Previously, she worked as a writer and editor for the New York-based travel website Atlas Obscura, where she covered food and culture. A California native, she is a graduate of Occidental College and Yale University.