Where did they go? Once, there were 12 packed Italian eateries, now there are eight and they are all but empty. Where there were 22 shops, there are now just 13. Day and night, Leichhardt's Italian Forum is a shadow of the buzzing precinct it was when it burst onto the inner west in December 1999.

Kathy Bakafoukas, who owns three of the Forum's restaurants and six of its shops, once employed a staff of 100. She now has eight. Her neighbouring restaurant, now closed, is said to have made $45,000 a day in its heyday.

Foot traffic is sporadic, boosted four times a week by the Taiwanese tourist buses that shepherd visitors to a specific restaurant for a choreographed Italian experience. Retail spaces are being let for free. What was once a dining and retail tiger has become a white elephant. And its future remains in the balance as a legal battle over the Forum's cultural heart unfolds between Leichhardt Council and administrators.

''The truth is there have been far too many empty shop fronts in Leichhardt in recent years and a growing perception that Norton Street's best days are behind it,'' said Leichhardt mayor Darcy Byrne, who has watched the ageing Italian population dwindle.

''Worse still, if we are not careful, Leichhardt's status as the spiritual home of Italian culture in Australia, could be permanently lost.''