Global Wanderer

20/7/23

Getting from Nice, in the south of France, to Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, proved to be an interesting exercise in lacing together flights from two of Europe’s prominent ultra-low cost carriers, Ryanair and EasyJet. What it created, however, was an opportunity for me to spend a day in Naples, and a perfect chance to stuff my face with pizza, under the guise of ‘trying the local cuisine’. Could not pass up that offer!

There is a bus that runs from just outside Naples Airport to the city centre, stopping at a few places along the way, which I caught after I had placed my backpack in a locker at the airport. I decided that I would try and weave my way through Napoli’s old, narrow streets, and seek out some famous pizza joints along the way.

First stop, Antica Pizzeria di Matteo – located in a bustling alleyway, and once visited by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, this pizzeria is built over three storeys, giving you some space to sit, and serves up incredible Napoli pizza. Pizza napoletana, made with just tomatoes and mozzarella (albeit very specific varieties of both!), is thin, baked for less than 90 seconds in an extremely hot wood oven, and is UNESCO-listed, which in my books makes this the culinary equivalent of visiting the Taj Mahal.

Pizza at Antica Pizzeria di Matteo

One pizza down, I continued my walk through the streets, stopping at some of the impressive churches that dot the city, and taking advantage of the dirt-cheap bottles of Peroni available in local shops. It is an interesting place, for sure – Naples gets a bad reputation, particularly for being dirty, grimy, and polluted, but I felt as though it was part and parcel of being in a city that was ‘lived in’.

Opposite my next pizza conquest (Sorbillo Piccolina), sits the Galleria Umberto I, a gigantic undercover shopping mall with a glass roof built almost 150 years ago. The structure itself is impressive to look at, and you almost feel as though someone has just placed a glass dome over any other street in the city.

Sorbillo Piccolina is a hole-in-the-wall store which basically consists of a shop front and a giant pizza oven. These guys specialise in pizza a portofoglio, also known as ‘wallet pizza’, which is essentially a pizza napoletana folded into four, and wrapped in paper. This way, the pizza stays warm, and it is easy to eat whilst walking (helpful, as Sorbillo Piccolina is standing room only).

I meandered down to Piazza del Plebescito, a large public square nearby to the Galleria Umberto I, where I washed the pizza down with a Birra Moretti, and was shouted at by a shop-owner, who decided he owned the piece of curb I had sat down on to eat. Ah, Italia!

Wallet pizza!

My final few hours in Naples, I decided to walk along the coast, doubling back on myself so that I would end up at the airport bus stop.

All in all, I’d consider this a pretty successful day trip! I caught the bus back to the airport, satisfyingly full of Italian beer and pizza, and despite a slight delay to my flight, I was soon on my way to my next adventure – Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria!