Formerly a part of Earlscourt, Corso Italia was originally an area where a lot of British people first settled. In the early 1900s, many squatter also settled here and in 1910, it was annexed by the old city of Toronto.

After the First World War, many Italians that had fled Europe settled here and the neighbourhood started to change dramatically. New shops and restaurants owned by Italians started to pop up along St Clair Avenue West and soon, this area had become the new center of Toronto’s Italian community.

In 1984, Corso Italia became a Business Improvement Area (BIA). This helped the neighbourhood to further grow and blossom into the lovely Italian enclave of Toronto that it is today.