The Da Michele Pizzeria in Naples is an odd eating establishment and one that is, sadly, ignored by many people who are on their way to Vesuvius, Pompeii, Capri, or Ischia. The restaurant is nothing to look at - in fact as you approach it looks like a local working man's bar. The restaurant's two dining rooms are functional; the first room holds the open-plan preparation area and ovens and several tables which leads on to the second dining room that has rows and rows of tables that you can expect to share with other eager diners. The restaurant is noisy and the lighting is supplied by copious neon tubes casting a yellow haze over the cigarette smoke.

At night, however, the restaurant is hive of activity with crowds of people pushing and shoving for a table and countless others to and froing with huge pizza boxes. The reason for this popularity is that Da Michele is renowned throughout Italy for its production of thoroughly Italian, and truly Neapolitan pizzas. If you're looking for variety, then go home as you can only get two traditional favourites here - the Margherita and the Marinara, anything else just isn't Neapolitan. The address for the restaurant is given below. Either buy a map or take a taxi - Naples is a maze of narrow streets lined with people on Vespas, and trying to get there on the hoof just isn't funny. We all like adventure holidays, but this is Naples; the crime rate is high, and drivers have an astoundingly bad attitude towards pedestrians.

So what is the secret of Da Michele's success? Simple - the restaurant produces pizzas using only natural and fresh ingredients, and it employs tried and traditional methods for preparing and raising the pizza dough. This combination of the great and the good has earned Da Michele a 'Pizza DOC' stamp of approval. The DOC is to pizza what AOC is to wine - a signature of quality awarded by a central body¹. The pizzas are not just loved by the people of Naples; in fact they have drawn the attention of the Italian glitterati as well as a few international big hitters - most notably football great Diego Maradona.

Address

Antica Pizzeria SRL 'Da Michele'
Via Cesare Sersal
1/3 (Angolo Via P Colleta)
80100 Naples
Italy