Round wood-fired Pizza Margherita (Naples)

🇮🇹Naples, Italy

The Pizza Pilgrimage

Eat the world's best pizza

Example Extreme Day Trip:🛫 From London Gatwick💰 From £31 return⏱ 2h 30m flightShare to WhatsApp

Why this dish?

There is pizza, and then there is Neapolitan pizza. The two are not the same thing. In Naples, pizza is a protected tradition - a UNESCO-listed cultural heritage, no less - made with double-zero flour, San Marzano tomatoes from the slopes of Vesuvius, buffalo mozzarella from Campania, and cooked in a wood-fired oven at 485°C for exactly 90 seconds. The result is a soft, charred, slightly irregular disc that tastes like nothing you have ever had at home, from a delivery app, or at an airport.

The city has been making pizza this way since the 18th century. Flying to Naples to eat one isn't excessive. It's the only correct response to knowing that a £31 flight and 90 seconds in a wood oven separates you from the best pizza on earth.

Our Picks

Pizzeria Da Michele

Address: Via Cesare Sersale 1, Naples
What to order: The marinara or the margherita. That is the entire menu. There are no other options and you will not need them.
Book ahead: No reservations. Arrive early and queue - it moves faster than you think.
Pro tip: Arrive before 11:30am to beat the lunchtime queue. Do not leave without eating the crust - in Naples, the cornicione is part of the dish.

Pizzeria Sorbillo

Via dei Tribunali 32, Naples

On Via dei Tribunali - Naples' pizza street - Sorbillo has been run by the same family for generations. Longer queues than Da Michele but the margherita has a cult following among Neapolitans themselves.

What to order: Margherita with buffalo mozzarella. Ask for a fritto misto to start - fried dough parcels filled with ricotta.

Good to know

Neapolitan pizza is available everywhere in Naples, but quality varies wildly. The rule: wood-fired oven only, short menu, locals eating there. Avoid anywhere with a photo menu outside or that offers more than five pizza types. On Via dei Tribunali alone you'll find a dozen places worth trusting.

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