Forget the tourist trail — the best friggitorie and pizzerie are the ones with no signs.
The city that invented the pizza
Naples does not do pizza as a trend; it does it as a birthright. The classic is disarmingly simple — a marinara with no cheese, or a margherita with San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and a basil leaf, blistered in sixty seconds in a wood oven hotter than seems reasonable. Eat it folded, at a stand-up counter, for a few euros.
The famous names have queues; the neighbourhood pizzerie with no English menu and a nonna at the till are where the city actually eats.
Beyond the pizza
- Friggitorie for cuoppo — a paper cone of fried seafood and vegetables eaten walking.
- Sfogliatella, the shell-shaped ricotta pastry, still warm from a Spaccanapoli bakery.
- A ragu that has simmered since morning, in a trattoria that opens only for lunch.
Follow the smell, ignore the signs, and order what the table next to you is having. Naples rewards appetite and punishes hesitation — arrive hungry and stay that way.
