Can’t Get To Naples? Here’s How To Have Italy’s Best Pizza Delivered To Your Door

Post-pandemic “revenge travel” is in full swing, and tourists are flocking to Italy in droves like never before: with the country poised to break all tourism records in 2023, visitors–especially those from the U.S.–are expected to beeline to Italy over other European destinations for the foreseeable future, to revel in the ineffable magic of la dolce vita.

One destination that’s having a distinct moment? Naples, the gritty, iconic capital of the Campania region, perched on the glittering Gulf of Naples in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius–arguably the world’s most famous volcano–and the gateway to the incomparable Amalfi Coast, a perennial Italian tourism center. Thanks in part to HBO’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed Neapolitan Novels, as well as some recent cultural coups–including the opening of the new site of the renowned Galleria d’Italia Naples last summer–the long-overlooked city is returning to its Grand Tour heyday, and once again attracting discerning travelers keen to explore its complex and myriad charms.

Founded around 600 BCE as Neapolis (“New City”) by the Greeks, Naples, like all great ancient cities, is one steeped in legend and lore. Case in point: the city’s oldest castle, the 12^th-century Castel dell’Ovo–literally “castle of the egg”–owes its name to the Roman poet Virgil, who is said to have buried a magical egg deep in the fortress’s foundation. The tale was as simple as it was full of foreboding: if the egg stayed intact, Naples would remain safe from all catastrophes–but should it break, the castle, and the city itself, would fall. If Naples’s ongoing renaissance and the castle’s status as one of its most popular tourist attractions are any indication, the plucky egg endures.

But there’s no more compelling Neapolitan narrative–or source of civic pride–than the story of its pizza, which enjoys deity status in this seaside metropolis, its birthplace and spiritual homeland. While the original fast food’s roots reach back to the flat, hearth-baked breads of the Greeks and Etruscans, Italy’s earliest settlers, the arrival of the tomato–which Spanish conquistadores brought to Europe in the mid-16^th century from the New World, where the Aztecs called the plant “tomati”–charted the course of pizza’s evolution from the early 1700s as a distinctly Italian invention.

Its official birth arguably dates back to 1889, when Queen Margherita of Savoy, consort of Italy’s then-king, Umberto I, observed Naples’s poor eating pizza in the streets. Intrigued and reportedly tired of courtly cuisine, she summoned the city’s most famous pizzaiolo (pizza maker), Raffaele Esposito, who made her three of his celebrated creations. Her favorite bore the colors of the national flag, adopted upon Italy’s unification 28 years before: red (tomato), white (mozzarella), and green (basil). In honor of his new royal patron, the delighted Esposito named her chosen pie the Margherita–and the rest, as they say, is history.

These days, pizza looms as large as ever in the city’s collective consciousness–as evidenced by the 2017 inscription of the “Art of Neapolitan Pizzaiolo” on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (the cultural arm of the UN declared the city’s historic center, billed as Europe’s largest, a World Heritage Site in 1995). Then there’s the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), a regulatory body established in 1984 by the city’s 17 most prominent pizza-making families to ensure that the art of pizza-making and the ingredients used comply with storied Neapolitan tradition. Only a fraction of the city’s more than 800 pizzerias have attained the coveted AVPN designation–look for the “Pizza Vera” sign by the door–which decrees (among other directives) that the dough be hand-kneaded and the pie baked in a scorching hot, wood-fired brick oven to attain its famously puffy, chewy crust.

Pizza aficionados flock to Naples from all over the world to sample this iconic and edible art form–and with Italy’s culinary tourism market expected to grow more than 15% through 2032 from nearly $35 billion last year, demand for the city’s epicurean treasure is sure to climb. And while some Neapolitan pizzerias became boldface names years ago–Sorbillo, L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, and da Attilio among them–chances are you’ll be hard pressed to encounter a disappointing pie anywhere within the greater city confines.

Finding bona fide Neapolitan pizza stateside, however, once posed a more formidable challenge–but not anymore, thanks to enterprising Brooklyn-based startup, Talia di Napoli. Launched in 2018 by Italian cofounders Edouard Freda and Ludovico Bassetti–who both have spent significant parts of their lives in Naples–to pay homage to the city’s singular pizza heritage, its pies are handcrafted using only time-honored traditions and top-quality, all-natural ingredients, then shipped right to your door.

The seeds of the company were first sewn during a weekend trip Freda took to Naples five years ago, when he visited the pizzificio (pizza production facility) of his uncle, Guido Freda, who at the time was exploring the notion of launching premium-quality frozen pizza in Italy with his business partner, Maurizio Ramirez. Edouard returned to New York with a then-untested idea: to sell the made-in-Naples pies in the U.S. instead, with the hunch that foodies would be willing to pay more for the real thing.

Sourcing the best-quality ingredients has helped fuel Talia’s success so far. Its signature sourdough, fermented for 24 hours, is made of Neapolitan-milled flour and water with minerals directly from Mt. Vesuvius, while its fior di latte mozzarella cheese was created specifically for Talia’s cryogenic freezing process: when reheated in conventional ovens, it tastes like it just emerged piping hot from the wood-fired ones found in Napoli pizzerias.

That proprietary, patented freezing technique, developed by Ramirez, is the secret to the brand’s production process. At the Talia di Napoli pizzificio, still overseen by Guido Freda in the town of Pozzuoli, some 30 minutes west of the city center, 29 Talia-trained pizzaioli hand-make and fully bake its pies in custom-made brick ovens. The pizzas are then immediately cryogenically frozen with liquid nitrogen in the company’s flash-freezing chamber–putting the pizzas to “sleep,” in Talia-speak, with no additives or preservatives, until they’re easily reawakened at 425 degrees for 9-12 minutes.

With the debut of its scrumptious new Cacio e Pepe (cheese and pepper) pizza on August 31^st, the Talia di Napoli lineup stands at 12 flavors and counting–including Garlic Pesto, Four Cheese, Gluten-free Eggplant Parmigiana, and even Vegan Margherita. Visit the website to peruse the pies and shop Talia di Napoli’s Labor Day Weekend sale through September 5^th.