There are hundreds of thousands of Italian-Americans living in Upstate New York. Huge percentages of the populations of Utica, Syracuse, Buffalo, Binghamton, and the Hudson Valley can trace their heritage back to "the old country.' The Italian bakeries and pastry shops of Upstate have served this population well over the last century or so. And for those who are not Italian also.

The bake shops and pastry stores on this list, many of them 50, 60 and even 100 years old, have been providing Italian holiday cookies, cannoli's, and wedding cakes for generations of their neighbors. Italian bread, now common in every supermarket, started out in the old brick ovens of these bakery's in the 1800s. And the loaves remain as heavenly as ever even today.