Carlton

Highlights

• Little Italy
• Shopping
• Dining.

Lygon Street in Carlton is Melbourne’s own Little Italy. It is the place where the city’s famous café culture was born, with the arrival of Melbourne’s first espresso machine at one of the street’s Italian-owned cafes in the 1950s.

The street’s double-storey Victorian terraces are crammed with endless cafes and restaurants serving steaming bowls of pasta, espresso and delicious gelati. And as you walk past, charming waiters will try and entice you to step inside or take a seat for sidewalk service. There’s pizza and pasta aplenty and old favourites like Tiamo and University Café are as warm and welcoming as they are unfaddishly tasty.

Further down Lygon Street you’ll find bookshops, galleries and plenty of shops selling the latest European and Australian fashions. The crowd here is mixed – from students at the nearby university, to the literary set buying up big at Readings bookstore and older Italian men just watching the world go by. Make a bee-line for the Lygon Street Festa in October – a celebration of traditional and contemporary Italian culture and one of Australia's largest outdoor street festivals.

How to get there
Tram: Number 1 or 22 heading north from Swanston Street
Bus: Numbers 20, 201, 203 or 207 from Melbourne Central
Travelling time: 15 minutes.