Bringing Italy home

(Michele mcdonald/globe staff)

Around the same time that Gaetano Martignetti was born, his father Erminio opened Salumeria Italiana, a small North End shop featuring imported Italian foods. Forty years later, Gaetano is in charge, selling Italian products like Piedmontese honey and antipasti of artichokes, eggplant, and mushrooms (from $9-$15 a pound). The shop has a clientele of regulars, and a mail-order business for the many tourists who wonder why the Martignettis don't open in Kansas or North Carolina. Another shop is unlikely, says North End resident Gaetano, whose 86-year-old father checks in daily before heading off to drink coffee and talk politics with neighborhood pals. Once you poke your head inside the salumeria, you might want to make a habit of it, too. Salumeria Italiana, 151 Richmond St., Boston, 617-523-8743, www.salumeriaitaliana.com. - LEIGH BELANGER