Napoli is famous for its pizza. Historians date a pizza-like food from the 1700’s. Pizza Margherita, made with tomato, basil, and mozzarella, has the colors of the Italian flag. It was first baked in 1889 for Queen Margherita. A pizzaioli is a pizza maker, someone with highly specialized skills. Napoli style pizza is different than that from the north—it is hand made and has a cornicione or high crust that sticks up around the edge—sort of like a pie crust. Although that is the basic Neopolitan style, every pizza here is unique. That is why we have eaten it every day so far, and why we will go back for more. Our first afternoon in Napoli we had pizza margarita for lunch at La Scalupa, a trattoria in the marina across from our hotel. The crust was good and nicely burned from the wood fire, but it got soggy too fast. We forgot to take the picture, so here is the part we couldn’t finish.
The next day we had pizza at Locanda del Grifo, nearby the Hotel Neocropolis. Pizza Siciliana there had good grilled veggies on it and was better than La Scalupa, but that crust got soggy pretty fast too.
On the last Saturday in August almost everything authentic was closed in Napoli—only the tourist places were open. Starving and desperate, the only place we could find open actually called Pizza Margarita. It was part of a chain found in 6 or 8 Italian cities. This pizza lacked that wonderful burned crust, but it didn’t get soggy. So I guess I’d give it a B-. Oops, we forget to take that picture before we ate it too. Sorry for pix of the leftovers!
Stay tuned. We are going back to Naples for the San Genero holiday in a few weeks, and the pizza report is expected to improve. The best places there are closed for much of August. And now we have just arrived in Sorrento and there is pizza everywhere here too. We had one for our first lunch here, but it was mediocre and salvaged only by the draft beer we drank with it.
