When I asked Anna, whom I bought my return ticket from, to recommend me some places to visit (and eat) in Naples, and told her that I’m a food writer, she sent me a looooong list of what to eat and where to eat them.

The list was really long, way too long for my small (but growing) body. I tried many of them, mostly the sweet stuff (it’s just much simpler to buy a piece of pastry than sit down and eat something in a restaurant…or at least that’s just my excuse)

Okay, I also had pizzas, from two of the most famous pizzerias in Naples, Da Michele (where Julia Robert came for Eat, Pray, Love) and Sorbillo. At Da Michele, they do everything in the ‘traditional’ way. There are only two types of pizzas, Marinara and Margherita, and you can choose sizes between normal, medium and large. They don’t do pizza with mozzarella du buffala here either, because it’s not ‘traditional’

The pizzas were soft and soggy, slightly burnt. I love the dough and how soft it was but not the sogginess that came with it, especially in the middle. I have to say I prefered marinara to margherita. Maybe because I was quite fed up with cheese and marinara was light and perfect for a late evening meal.




Gino Sorbillo, on the other hand, had exactly 21 different special pizzas, one for each of his children, who were all pizza makers (or what they call pizzaiolo in Italian) We had margherita with buffala (to be honest, I couldn’t really tell the difference…except on the bill that was) and a special one called Benito, with capers, olives, fresh tomatoes, provola cheese and some other stuff. It was delicious.

However a whole pizza to myself was still a bit too much for me to handle. My favourite thing about the napoletana pizza is still the dough though, the softness, lightness and chewiness of the long-fermented dough. I don’t understand why people here don’t eat the lovely rim of pizzas, I really can’t get enough of it!

Move on to something sweet :)


Naples is famed for the sfogliatella, pastry filled with candied orange and sweet ricotta cream. There are too types of sfogliatella, one is made with the less sophisticated sweet short-crust pastry dough called sfogliatella frolla, and the other laminated with so many layers of dough and baked until brown and crispy, served warm and dusted with icing sugar.


Heavenly.

But this heavy and warm pastry can be too much for the summer months when it’s so hot outside already. Of course the napoletani have a solution for this, dryer and crispier dough is used as a cone, filled with soft-serve and different toppings.


Heaven again.

If you still need some cooling down on a hot day, Naples had an amazing gelateria right in the city centre.

Living in Bologna, paradise of gelato lover, I didn’t really want to have gelato elsewhere because my favourites in Bologna were hard to top. However, when I walked past this gelateria with Mara, my Couchsurfing host, and the smell of fresh waffle cones hit my nose, I couldn’t help it.


Yes, they made their waffle cones right in front of you, the sweet buttery smell infused the air. The gelato here was equally as good as its cone, intense natural flavour of everything.

Heaven existed in Naples, food heaven does.


This area has such a rich food tradition, from savoury to sweet. The typical cakes here are pretty good as well. Torta Caprese made with cocoa powder, butter and grounded almonds. So dense, so rich…

Don’t try to calculate the calories, just enjoy the taste of it is my best advice ;)