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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