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Sunday, February 8, 2015

Naples, Home of the Best Pizza



When I was planning our family trip to Italy, my initial plan was to hit up Venice, Florence, and Rome. When I read online that Naples is home to the best pizza not only in Italy, but possibly the world, I immediately added it to the list. To be honest, the family and I didn’t do much in Naples except eat and sleep, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

By the time we arrived in Naples, we were all really exhausted from our week of museum and monument sight seeing. While my brother and dad napped in the hotel, my mom and I perked up with lunch at Da Michele. After waiting about half an hour, we were seated inside the totally packed restaurant.

From the two options on the menu, Margherita and Marinara, we ordered the Margherita Neapolitan pizza to share. Each bite tasted perfectly balanced from the simplicity of ingredients like the gooey mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, and basil leaves. The location, however, is less than desirable considering my mom almost got pick-pocketed on our walk over there.

Afterwards, we visited the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, an art museum mainly of Neapolitan paintings. When I laid my eyes on Antea by Parmigianino, a painting I first saw on Gilmore Girls when Stars Hollows through on their Festival of Living Art, I got so excited. Then, we returned to the hotel to rest for a bit before heading out to dinner.

Located just outside of beachfront Naples, Brandi Pizzeria was tucked away in a side street of a quintessential Italian neighborhood with intimate outdoor tables and a romantic and friendly ambiance indoors. I ordered a ham and mushroom that time, to mix things up from lunch. Although the location and ambiance were more pleasant at Brandi, the pizza at Da Michele was slightly better.

My brother and I returned to Brandi for lunch the next day, after our visit to Pompeii. We were both craving meat, so he ordered ham and mushroom, while I asked for the chorizo and broccoli leaves topped pizza. We agreed that both of our pies hit the spot and were just as satisfied as the night before.

Everyone reunited for dinner at Di Matteo.  The line outside was even more chaotic then at Da Michele, and after waiting for over half an hour, we decided tto get in the shorter line for pizza to go. Normally, I’m not a fan of spicy foods, but for my last pie in Naples, I chose to go for the Diavola. The spicy salami was surprisingly delicious and luckily we found a random open table to eat outside.

In true Italian fashion, we followed our pizza with gelato for dessert. We actually got into the habit of going out for gelato at the end of each day and continued the tradition into our next stop, Rome. We all agreed that there was no better pizza in the world and that the Italian cuisine alone made the trip to Naples worth it.

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