You can’t visit Naples without eating a traditional Neapolitan pizza. After all, pizza was invented here! Or… was it? With the invention of mills on different continents, people around the globe started making wheat based cooked foods. And just like pasta isn’t inherently Italian (or Chinese, for that matter) neither are flatbreads with toppings. In fact, those can be traced back to Ancient Greece, Persia and the entire Mediterranean area. But can we simply call each type of topped flatbread pizza? Can we even agree on what defines a pizza? If you’d ask the average American to define pizza, th ..read more

As summers in Naples can get very hot, here’s some tips on how to stay cool while vacationing in the area. Don’t be fooled by the call of the lovely Mediterranean sun; temperatures can rise up to over 40C (104F) and trust me when I say you do not want to be walking around Pompeii in those temperatures. Luckily, I’ve found plenty of ways to cool down over the years, even on the hottest of days. Many of these 10 tips on staying cool are simply copying the habits of the locals, because when in Rome (or Naples)… right?! 1: Stay cool with iced coffee Southern Italian coffees are the best! But with ..read more

When you think of street food, you might think of indulgent snacks – often consisting of a fried component, neatly tucked into a bun or wrapper of some kind. In recent years, street food seems to have been taken to a new level with food trucks (or e-bikes) and fancy market halls offering gourmet street food, which above all has to be organic, instagrammable and exciting (and did I mention incredibly expensive?) Neapolitan street food isn’t all that fancy or hip. We’ve got our takeaway sized pizzas, fried fish, potato croquettes and hollowed out pieces of bread filled with ragù. But before ..read more

If you’re reading this, you probably love Italian food. But how Italian is the food you eat really? And do you know how to recognise authentic dishes and cooking methods?  Unless you’ve lived in Italy, there’s probably a couple of things you’re doing wrong when cooking or ordering Italian food. Here’s a list with 12 common mistakes explained to help you get a more authentic experience, even when you can’t travel to Italy. 1: Serving plain pasta with sauce on top The secret to a good pasta dish is in binding the sauce to the pasta it is served with. You can do this by cooking the pasta in ..read more