If you visit Italy and don’t eat pizza, did you really visit Italy?
While this question is a bit cheeky, we can’t conceive of an Italy trip that doesn’t include pizza.
We love eating pizzas in Naples and Rome but we also love eating the quintessential Italian food in cities more famous for pasta like Parma and Verona. But we don’t stop at pizza.
Each city in Italy has unique pastas, breads, meats and other dishes that date back centuries before unification, back when Italy consisted of 20 separate nation states. Some like Tiramisu are well known around the world but others, like Rome’s Supplì, are more difficult, if not impossible, to find outside of their home cities or regions.
For food food-focused food travelers like us, this situation is nothing short of an enlightening challenge. Our rewards involve tasting new and exciting foods in different regions each time we visit Italy.
If you’re ready for a similar culinary challenge, be sure to include one or more of the following Italian cities in your next Italy food trip itinerary:
1. Naples
Naples food seekers fall into two categories. They either love Campania’s urban jungle or hate it.
We fit into the first category since we love everything about Italy’s gritty city. We adore strolling through Napoli’s winding streets filled with graffitied buildings just as much as we adore glancing upon mighty Mount Vesuvius when we stroll along the Via Partenope next to the blue Bay of Naples.
But, most of all, we love eating pizza and other food favorites in Naples. Over the past decade, we’ve taken this love to the next level by visiting Naples three separate times, spending close to two months in Campania’s capital. We’ve even pondered living in Naples permanently, a dangerous prospect for Mindi due to her extreme pizza love
Discover dozens of Naples food favorites you don’t want to miss as well as the best Naples pizzerias, cafes and gelato shops.
Naples is famous around the world for its pizza.
It may be the city that invented Margherita pizza. There’s a dubious legend that involves a Napoli pizzaiolo inventing the pie in honor of Queen Margherita’s visit in 1889 but the tomato, mozzerella and basil pie may have existed decades earlier. That being said, there’s no debate that Naples is the ultimate destination for pizza lovers.
There’s also no debate that there’s more to eat than pizza in Naples. Much of the city’s food culture traveled by boat to the Americas, a migration that eventually made Italian food famous throughout the world – think spaghetti, tomato sauce and meatballs (which are generally served separately in Italy) in addition to New York’s version of Pizza. But the best Neapolitan food is found in Naples.
The city has cornucopia of tasty treats ranging from fried snacks to pasta made with ingredients like tomatoes grown in volcanic soil. And the desserts! Just thinking about sfogliatelle makes us hungry.
Must Eat Foods In Naples
Fiocco di Neve, Friarielli, Frittatina, Gelato, Mozzarella di Bufala, Pasta Genovese, Pizza, Sfogliatelle and Spaghetti alle Vongole
