The Columbus Day Parade returns to the city Monday, celebrating Italian American culture and achievement.

The parade route marches up Fifth Avenue from 47th to 72nd Streets in Manhattan.

The Columbus Citizens Foundation, a nonprofit with a goal of fostering an appreciation of Italian American heritage and achievement in the city, organizes the parade every year.

"New York City is a great city for traditions. We have a lot of things that continue on for years and decades. And I'm very proud to be part of Columbus Citizens Foundation and part of this parade," the executive director of the foundation, Lisa Ackerman, told Rocco Vertuccio and Shannan Ferry Sunday morning on NY1. "It means a lot to me, growing up in an Italian American family and knowing the kinds of struggles my mother's family had coming from Sicily."

Many areas of the city have deep Italian roots, including Little Italy, Greenwich Village, East Harlem, Bensonhurst and Corona Heights.

"I think a lot of us know the stories of Italian American immigrants being bricklayers and stonemasons," Ackerman said. "So you can go around the city and find that legacy."