In 2010 I said I would “return to Naples in a heartbeat just to eat the pizza.” So we did!

And it wasn’t easy.
We dropped off the rental car in Caserta and trained to Napoli Centrale (train station) in order to preserve our lives, our marriage and our sanity by not driving in Naples.

We returned to the same pizzeria – Pizzeria Trianon – for their specialty – a Margherita pizza with buffalo mozzarella cheese. 

Pizzeria Trianon is family owned since 1923 and claim to have created the Margherita pizza naming it for Queen Margherita. The tri-color pizza – the red of the tomato sauce, the green of the basil leaf and the white of the buffalo mozzerella cheese – are the colors of the Italian flag.

We quickly wolfed our shared pizza and decided to share a second pizza. The next day for lunch we returned to share another pizza, the one with fresh cherry tomatoes instead of tomato sauce.  Ok, we shared a second pizza this time too, a cheeseless Marinara. We had to eat as many as we could as we may never return to Naples and Pizzeria Trianon.

The Napolitano pizza crust is different: softer and doughier. They bake so quickly in the hot wood-fired pizza oven. Sloppier to eat, the locals use knife and fork.

It wasn’t cheap.

We got ripped off and paid 6 euros for the privilege of sitting at a table to drink our 2-swallow-thimbles of espresso and share a croissant. One night accommodations in the crummy train station neighborhood cost more than we usually pay – and more than we paid in Rome. The upside was we could walk to our pizzeria.

Naples is noisy, dirty and, basically ugly.

It wasn’t pretty.

Pizza aside, Naples is not a picturesque city and we didn’t see much.

The rainy weather added to the already drab color of Naples.

A bright spot in Naples.

Before leaving Lecce our dear Italian friends took us to a local cheese maker. We sampled many of the local specialties. Between snacking on our purchased cheeses and the Naples pizzas we nearly overdosed on cheese.

The display was stunning!

I wanted to sample and buy more cheese.

Read the blog post about our previous visit – Noisy Napoli here. (My opinion hasn’t changed. Once again the Pizzeria Michele which has been promoted by both Rick Steves and Samantha Brown had large waiting crowds.)

On a Pizza Tasting mission, the next day we headed to Rome anxious to taste and compare the differences between the Napolitano and Romano pizzas.

This week we have been playing tourist in Rome, but presently are tasting new flavors and foods in Istanbul,Turkey. I have more great photos to share from Matera and Rome, Italy too, but they will have to wait until next time. We continue to travel eastwards so we will be in a different country next time we Meet You in the Morning.