L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele

Via Cesare Sersale 1

Open from 10.30am – midnight Mon-Sat

If you do nothing else during your trip to Naples, visit this pizzeria. Service leaves rather a lot to be desired but oh, sweet mother of all things holy, the pizza is a gift from the gods.

This is the pizzeria Liz Gilbert wrote about in Eat Pray Love. It has pictures of Julia Roberts tucking into her Margherita con doppia mozzarella (double mozzarella) pasted all over the walls. The pizza oven is IN the main seating area, and there is magic in the hands of those pizza chefs. After finishing her first slice, my travel companion Lexi placed her hands on her hips, eyed her pizza frankly, then looked at me and announced, ‘I feel more strongly about this pizza than I do about men that I’ve dated.’

The decor will probably remind you a bit of your Nan’s utility room, (cracked white and green ceramic tiles and strip-lighting, anyone?) and the long plain tables facilitate seating for maximum customer capacity rather than an intimate meal, but that’s part of the charm of the place. You can’t help but get talking to the people next to you, especially if you’re there alone.

My biggest piece of advice would be to GET THERE EARLY. It’s only a 10-15 minute walk from the central station, but make sure you arrive at 7pm on the dot or you will end up queuing half the night for your dinner.  If you’re going for lunch, be there at 12, or you run the risk of them running out of dough and that would just kill you. The Margherita con doppia mozzarella is €5 and is the most expensive pizza on the menu. Otherwise you can order a straight up margherita or a marinara (no mozzarella) for €4.50. All drinks cost €2.

Very little can prepare you for Neapolitan pizza. I had been in Italy for four months already by the time I hit Naples, and even my mind was blown. To give you some indication, this is how Liz Gilbert described it:

‘Holy of Holies! Thin, doughy, strong, gummy, yummy, chewy, salty pizza paradise. On top, there is a sweet tomato sauce that foams up all bubbly when it melts the fresh buffalo mozzarella, and the one sprig of basil in the middle of the whole deal somehow infuses the entire pizza with herbal radiance...  I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair.’

There you have it kids. Enjoy.