Best Naples Pizza Places (Besides the "Eat Pray Love" One)

When the movie came out in 2010, everyone wanted to know which pizzeria in Naples gave "Eat Pray Love" author Elizabeth Gilbert (and Julia Roberts, playing her on screen) her transformative pizza moment.

It's L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele, at Via Cesare Sersale 1. It was famous long before the book or the film crews, it has made pizza there since 1870, and it still serves a famously short menu built around the marinara and the margherita. The movie made the line longer, and it still is. Take a number at the door and expect to wait. Da Michele has since opened branches elsewhere in Campania, but the original is the one people queue for.

Here's the good news. If you want some of the best pizza in Naples and you're not on a pilgrimage to sit where Gilbert sat, the city has dozens of places as good or better, many with shorter lines and no film fans. Depending on who you ask, skipping Da Michele might even get you a better pizza.

A quick guide to ordering: a proper Neapolitan pizza is soft, with a puffy, charred rim (the cornicione) and a wet center, baked in about 90 seconds in a wood oven. Order one each, eat it with a knife and fork, or fold it up a portafoglio (like a wallet) if you buy it from a street window. Start with a margherita or a marinara (tomato, garlic, oregano, no cheese); every pizzeria is judged on those two.

The Classics in the Historic Center

Di Matteo
Via dei Tribunali 94
I haven't tried all the pizza in Naples (yet!), but my favorite so far is Di Matteo. Food writer Katie Parla sent me there, and she practically salivated as she described it, so I knew I had to go. Di Matteo has been making pizza since 1936. It sells fried snacks and small pizzas from a window onto the street, or you can go inside (you walk in through the kitchen, right past the ovens, which is incredibly cool) and sit down. It's right in the historic center, so you have no excuse. (Here's Katie's write-up of Di Matteo, for extra incentive.)

I Decumani
Via dei Tribunali 60/61
I Decumani is another of Katie Parla's picks on Via dei Tribunali, run by a family of pizza makers, and it shows up on far fewer lists than its neighbors. So if the lines up the street are too long, try here. It's open every day for lunch and dinner. Katie thinks its pizza fritta is particularly good if you just want a snack.

Sorbillo
Via dei Tribunali 32
Gino Sorbillo's family pizzeria dates from 1935 and is the most famous name on Via dei Tribunali after Da Michele. Gino has since opened branches all over Naples and abroad, but the original is still the most atmospheric, and the pizza is damned good. The crowd outside is part of the show: give your name to the person with the list, then wait.

La Figlia del Presidente
Via del Grande Archivio 23/24
In 1994, when Naples hosted the G7 summit, Bill Clinton walked into the historic center and ate a pizza made by Ernesto Cacialli, who was known as "the president's pizzaiolo" ever after. His daughter Maria Cacialli now runs this pizzeria a few minutes from Via dei Tribunali, with the family photos on the walls and old-school, no-frills pizza, including a fried pizza the size of a cartwheel. It's in the 2026 edition of the 50 Top Pizza guide's list of excellent Italian pizzerias. It's closed on Sundays for much of the year.

Brandi
Salita Sant'Anna di Palazzo 1-2
When I order pizza in Italy I almost always get a margherita; it's the standard I judge a pizzeria by. Pizzeria Brandi, just off Via Chiaia near Piazza del Plebiscito, is where tradition says the margherita got its name in 1889, when a pizza in the colors of the Italian flag was made for Queen Margherita. (Tomato, mozzarella and basil on a pizza weren't new; naming it for the queen was.) The business dates back to 1780 under an earlier name. It's more of a sit-down restaurant than the Tribunali places, it closes on Mondays, and yes, it's touristy, but the story is a good one.

Trianon da Ciro
Via Pietro Colletta 42/46
A few steps from Da Michele, and open since 1923, Trianon is the obvious plan B when the Da Michele line is hopeless. It's big by Italian standards, and it still gets crowded. The crowds here are at least as local as they are tourist.

Worth the Detour

The pizzerias above are the famous old guard, all within a few blocks of each other. Step outside the historic center and the list gets even better. These are the ones I'd send you to next, and all of them made the 2026 lists of the 50 Top Pizza guide:

50 Kalò
Piazza Sannazaro 201c, Mergellina
Ciro Salvo's pizzeria near the Mergellina waterfront came 5th in the guide's 2026 ranking of Italy's best pizzerias. It's famous for its light, very digestible dough and for the quality of its ingredients. The Mergellina branch doesn't take reservations, but the line moves fast. There's a second, bookable branch at Piazza della Repubblica.

La Notizia
Via Michelangelo da Caravaggio 94
Enzo Coccia was one of the first pizza makers in Naples to obsess over ingredients and dough, and the 50 Top Pizza guide calls him a pioneer of quality pizza in the city. He runs La Notizia now with his sons Andrea and Marco, and it came 12th in Italy in the 2026 ranking. It's a taxi ride out of the center, in a residential neighborhood west of the center, and worth it.

Concettina ai Tre Santi
Via Arena della Sanità 7 bis, Rione Sanità
A pizzeria in the Sanità neighborhood, a part of town most tourists used to skip. Try the "sott'e 'ncoppa", an upside-down pizza built on the plate with the fried base on top, and combine it with a visit to the Sanità catacombs.

Starita
Via Materdei 27/28
More than a century old and still a neighborhood institution in Materdei, with a classic menu, good fried starters and a marinara with a little cheese. Closed on Mondays.

Da Attilio
Via Pignasecca 17
In business since 1938, in the middle of the Pignasecca street market near Montesanto. It's a real neighborhood place, with tourists and locals at the same tables. Closed on Sundays.

How to Find More Good Pizza in Naples

One of the beautiful things about Naples is how much good food there is. You'll have no trouble finding excellent pizza whether or not you arrive with a list of addresses. A few rules of thumb:

• Look for the wood oven and the line of locals. A short menu is a good sign; a laminated photo menu in six languages usually isn't.
• Look for the AVPN sign. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana certifies pizzerias that make pizza the traditional way. Its sign shows Pulcinella, the white-robed clown who is a symbol of Naples, holding a pizza peel, usually with the words "Verace Pizza Napoletana". Plenty of excellent pizzerias aren't members, so treat it as a good sign rather than a requirement.
• Go at off hours. Neapolitans eat late. Arrive at noon for lunch or before 7:30pm for dinner and the famous places are much easier.
• Don't skip street pizza. A pizza a portafoglio folded in paper, or a pizza fritta from a window, costs a few euros and is how many locals eat it.

Determined to follow in Elizabeth Gilbert's footsteps? Then by all means make a beeline for Da Michele. But remember that Gilbert went there because a friend pointed her to a true Neapolitan pizzeria, not to a place made famous by a book. If you really want her experience, find your own.
>> To find AVPN-certified pizzerias in Naples or anywhere in the world, start your search here and narrow it down by location. And for the rest of the city, see my top 10 things to do in Naples.
photos, top to bottom, by: dawvon, the Di Matteo website, Allerina & Glen MacLarty, mararie