It’s basic logical reasoning: If Naples has the best pizza in the world, and Dal Presidente has the best pizza in Naples, then that means I must have eaten the best pizza in the world… right? YES. YES RIGHT. IT’S THE BEST.
Photos via Sarah Freeman
A friend (seen smiling over her pie above) was coming to visit here in Italy, to check out my life abroad, so of course we had to visit Naples in search of the true greatest Italian pizza. It was my first time in the city as well. Wandering the ancient Greek streets of the old city center, there seems to be options for amazing pizza and a million incredible fried snacks on every block, it would’ve been impossible to choose by winging it, so we did a bit of research.
We read that in the 90’s President Bill Clinton visited Napoli and chose to have his pizza at a pizzeria called Di Matteo so our first reaction was to go there (if it’s good enough for the Bill it’s good enough for us), but as we kept reading we found that while Di Matteo still holds the honor of hosting President Clinton, the actual pizzaiolo, the pizza maker, had moved on to open his own place after his pies became famous (hence the name, Del Presidente).
From the outside it looks just like a small street food vendor with a counter, but if you follow them in and down the stairs it opens up in a large, beautiful and nice and cool cellar that holds the sit down portion of the restaurant. On the walls you can see photos of all the notable guests (Jennifer Lopez also digs this pizza) as well as family and friends. Sometimes musicians come in and play and the over all atmosphere is relaxing and cheery.
The pizza… however… the pizza is everything. When it arrives, nothing else matters. The menu has more options than you could ever need, and the prices are practically a gift, you might as well order all of them. All the pizzas for you. The crust is the perfect amount of puffy in the true Naples style and all of the toppings are all fresh and full of flavor. Upon finishing you will likely be brought to tears, both of joy because you had the pizza and also of mourning the loss of it since you ate it all. You will never be the same, but you will be back someday.
