The Best Pizza Restaurants in Italy

While pizza is to be found in just about every corner of the world, its popularity in its land of origin has never diminished.  Pizza is as popular today in Italy as it ever has been.  Have you ever wondered where in Italy the best pizzas can be found?

Seeing as much of Italy appears to be fuming over the latest escapade of the Berlusconi government, I felt it might be nice to take a break from politics for a moment and to look at a distinctly more appetising subject, which is also much easier to digest: pizza.

Italian author Orietta Boncompagni Ludovisi has had her book “The Best Pizzerias In Italy” republished some five times since it first appeared in 1996.  Each time a new edition of Boncompagni Ludovisi’s pizza book hits the bookshops of Italy, it sells like hot cakes.  Perhaps that should be “sells like hot pizzas”.

Anyway, I was reading a copy of what I’ve been told by our local news-stand is one of Italy’s best selling travel magazines, Dove, and I found a delicious article all about pizza.  Part of said article was a list of the top ten pizzerias in all of Italy in the opinion of Boncompagni Ludovisi, who is probably Italy’s number one pizza expert.

Pizza

I thought it would be interesting for the rest of the world to know the names of what are considered by an Italian pizza expert to be the top pizzerias in Italy.   And once they know, pizza fans the world over will have a better idea of where in Italy they should be spending their holidays.

Before reading on, in which Italian towns and cities do you think the best pizzerias in Italy are to be found?

OK, here’s the top five.  For the other five, you’ll have to buy the March 2010 edition of Dove.  By the way, ‘Dove’ is pronounced ‘dough-vay’, and is Italian for ‘where’.

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Pizzeria Photo Gallery

It was pizza night tonight, although it was not the standard Italian type pizza, but the ‘pizza al trancio’, which is the ‘deep pan’ version of the traditionally thin pizza. There are two pizzerias near us that do this type of pizza. One is Da Giuliano which is located at the Corso Sempione end of Via Paolo Sarpi in Milan, and which has been there long enough to have become something of an institution in these parts.

Oddly enough, I’m not a great fan of the Da Giuliano deep pan pizzas. I find that they are just too heavy and I don’t like the texture of the pizza base. Luckily, there is another of these places, Da Mimmo, which is at 2 Via Alfredo Albertini. This street is a small side road that connects Paolo Sarpi with Via Canonica. Anyway, I prefer the deep pan pizza that is place does, even if, I have to say, I don’t really like the Italian deep pan pizza that much.

My other half does though, so we often find ourselves either eating there or bringing some of this substantial pizza home, as we did this evening.

The Da Mimmo pizzeria is a strange place. The thing that strikes you is that everything is very Spartan and functional. It is also a little dated and looks as though the place was last done up back in the sixties or seventies. As you walk in you see about three or four rows of long brown melamine tables, which are set up banquet style, and if you eat there, you may well find yourself sitting next to people you don’t know.

Actually, in general Italian restaurants are not intimate, and the tables are often set very close to one another. And if you are the only people in the restaurant and another group comes in, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will sit themselves down at a neighbouring table. OK, enough of the set up of Italian eateries.

What is interesting about the Da Mimmo pizzeria, and makes it worth a visit, if only for some pizza to take away, is the selection of stunning photos of desert landscapes, African people, and four by fours ascending and descending dunes which adorn the walls. This evening, as often happens, my curiosity got the better of me I asked about all the images.

It turns out that the owner of the pizzeria loves going on tours to Africa, and has been doing so for many years, hence all the photos. At the moment this gentleman is somewhere in the midst of Lybia on a ten day tour of the country apparently. The he take photos are not digital, but of the traditional film variety.

This pizzeria cum photo gallery, which is closed Sundays, is actually quite a fascinating place, and it is cheap, and popular with the locals. If you do try it out, do not forget to spend a few minutes looking at all the images.  They really are very good.

Turning Round La Brutta Figura

Italy is a very image conscious country – just wander down any Italian street and you will see beautiful shops and elegantly dressed passers by. The places and people are examples of ‘la bella figura’ – which means ‘creating the right impression’. The opposite of the ‘bella’ version is ‘la brutta figura’, which is similar in concept to the French ‘faux pas’, only in Italian culture ‘la brutta figura’ is somewhat worse than its French equivalent. In the eyes of the world Italy is one making big brutta figura at the moment, thanks in no small part to recent articles in internationally read newspapers.

While some dismiss these articles as foreign interference, many of the people I know, would not disagree that things are not going all too well in the land of pizza and Ferrari. These people are aware of Italy’s brutta figura, and it is embarrassing. However, there is the possibility that the embarrassment that these mischievous articles have generated may actually help reverse the downward slide which is occurring in the Living Museum. Two changes would make a noticeable difference. First, the electoral laws need to be properly reformed, and second all that is needed is quite simply a few new faces in Italian politics, and, possibly, the forthcoming collapse of the Prodi government may just provoke someone who can bring about such change into Italian politics.

That someone is the present head of Ferrari and the Italian employers’ federation chairman Luca di Montezemolo, and there are rumours that once his presidency at the federation ends he will enter politics. Heck, I really hope so. He would be something of a breath of fresh air in Italy, and he certainly has the management skills necessary to put together the right team and thus get down to sorting things out. Whether he will be able to navigate the veritable ocean of vested interests is another question, but seems to have done OK at Ferrari and Fiat, both of which are quintessentially Italian companies, warts, vested interests, and all. So it sounds as though he may stand a sporting chance.
The slight fly in the ointment, or so it would seem, is that Prodi’s band of brothers has collapsed a short time before Montezemolo managed to enter the scene . However, all may not be lost, because you see, the next elections will result in the same old unloved but familiar faces gaining power, and this will further lower the Italian populace’s esteem in those who purport to lead them. Enter stage right Montezemolo and, with a little luck some electoral reform will be carried out, he will sweep the field, and his mere presence may well give the majority of Italians the impression that there is still a ray of hope shining through what has been becoming an ever more overcast sky.

And, never fear, if Montezemolo really does manage to get the Italian ball rolling once more, there are more than enough talented Italians to keep it rolling in the right direction. This I know, I am lucky enough to teach plenty of them. And the frustration that has built up in such people is, at the same time, serving to stoke the fires of ambition, and, in the not too distant future the flames emitted by these people will reduce the old and ineffective to mere ashes.

La brutta figura will lead to la bella figura, or, as we say in English ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. Just you wait and see.

The Italian Bar

Italian bars come in many shapes and sizes, but they can be divided into two quite distinct categories – those that open in the morning and close at about the same time as the shops do – that is around 7.30 and the bars which are more akin to the English pub – except that they open in the early evening and finally close at around 2 in the morning.

There are some places which open at eight, or much earlier, in the morning and keep on going until two in the next morning, but they are not that common.

I should point out that the Italian bar is not really a pub or a bar in the American sense.  Well, the daytime versions are not.  Italian daytime bars are more like a café.  Italian bars are everywhere.  The choice is endless.  Some are exceedingly friendly, while others will be quite standoffish until you become a regular, in which case you will be treated like an old friend.  The barman in my local spots me from across the road and has my usual caffè lungo waiting on the counter!  Now that’s service!

Shortly, I’ll take you on a tour of what the daytime bars offer, but first let me say something about the atmosphere of these places.

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