Photos by Linny Folau.

Little Italy Hotel and Restaurant showcased its renovated restaurant and rooms, with a celebration on the evening of November 27.

The owners, Italian Angelo Crapanzano and his Tongan wife Meleseini draped the front of the two storey hotel with an Italian flag and unveiled the newly decorated hotel at a reception for about 100 people.

Staff of the hotel formed a choir dressed in a traditional Italian costume and sang from the first floor balcony overlooking the Sopu seafront. 

Angelo said the 22 room hotel and restaurant underwent new interior decorations and remodeling of bathrooms.  New murals in the restaurant picture arches overlooking a Tuscany vineyard.

Little Italy began as a Nuku'alofa pizzeria in 1996 and operated for 12-years before the construction of the hotel and restaurant began in 2007 and completed before the Late King George Tupou V's Coronation.

Angelo said Little Italy was opened by King George Tupou V.