We are currently in Italy and will be here a little while longer. As I type we are getting set to leave Rome for Florence. But we started our trip in Naples. Which is also where we started our over-eating. This lunch at Pizzeria da Attilio was not our first meal in Naples (that was dinner at Mimi alla Ferrovia the previous evening) but it seems right to begin an account of eating in Naples with pizza. And so.

As you would expect, there is a lot of good pizza to be had in Naples and probably almost as many opinions on which the best places to eat pizza in Naples as there are pizza-eating people in Naples. We were staying on Via Duomo, very close to the two most famous places: Antica Pizzeria da Michele and Gino e Toto Sorbillo. We did not, however, eat at either of them. This was largely because both are so popular that you have to wait a really long time to get a table—and if there’s something we don’t like to do when traveling with the kids, it’s waiting at restaurants. But we couldn’t have eaten at both anyway, as one of our two pizza meal slots in the city was spoken for by Attilio.

Pizzeria da Attilio had come very highly recommended both by Katie Parla (whose site on eating in Italy is an indispensable resource for food-minded visitors) and by friends who have visited Naples before. The pizzeria has been around since 1938 and its current proprietor and chef, Attilio Bachetti—the grandson of the original Attilio—is a prominent presence in the city’s food scene, which is more or less to say, in its pizza scene. I will not go into any of that here partly because I am a little pressed for time, but mostly because I don’t know very much about the Naples pizza scene and don’t want to come off like an expert based on a stay of a few days. I can tell you that if you like pizza, and you eat pizza at Attilio, you will be very happy. We certainly were.

They are located in the Spanish Quarter and are fairly easy to find. And if you contrive to get lost you’ll enjoy walking through those narrow lanes to find them anyway. It’s not an over-large space and even if you get there not too long after they open—as we did—you are likely to encounter a wait. While you wait you can peruse the seafood shop alongside or the fruit seller opposite. There are a few tables outside—we were offered one but decided to wait to sit in the air-conditioned interior. You enter past a counter where the man himself and another chef are forming the pizzas, right next to the oven where the magic happens. There are two small dining rooms, with small tables and charming decor. The tables are close together but not claustrophobically so. And once the food arrives you’re not really going to be aware of anything else.

We sat down and perused the menu. There are many, many pizza options, from the Neapolitan classics to the restaurant’s own specialties. There are also a few fried starters. From these we got the crocche (breaded and crisply-fried potato and cheese croquettes) and the arancini. And we got three pizzas. The margherita, of course. And we also got one of their signature star-shaped pizzas, the carnevale, whose points are stuffed with ricotta. Finally, a “white” pizza with porcini and mozzarella. What can I say? All three were great. The crust on all three, light and pillowy, the product of high hydration, was just amazing. The San Marzano sauce on the margherita I could have eaten by the spoon, as I could have the ricotta in the carnevale. And the delicate flavours of the mushroom pizza were wonderful as well.

All of that and the prices are extremely reasonable as well. To see how much we paid, and for brief notes on service, scroll down. Click on an image below to launch a larger slideshow of the restaurant and what we ate.

Service was friendly and helpful. Our pizzas were brought to our table by Chef Bachetti himself, which we got a big thrill from. Price? A mere 41 euros. Which is as much of a steal as you can expect to find anywhere. If we’re ever back in Naples we’ll be back again to try more of their offerings. And if any of my readers visit Naples for the first time, I highly recommend you visit as well.

Alright, I’m not sure when my next Italy food post will drop but it will be of either another meal in Naples or perhaps out of sequence from Rome. Before that, on Tuesday, I’ll have my last Twin Cities review of the month.