The Original Pizza Napoletana at L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele

Founded in 1870, L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele on Via Cesare Sersale serves exactly two things: the Margherita and the Marinara. There is no other menu. The queue outside, which begins forming before noon, includes Neapolitans, tourists, food writers, and people who have flown specifically for this meal. The decor has not changed since roughly 1950. The tables are formica. The experience is close to religious.

True Neapolitan pizza is a protected thing — the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana has maintained standards since 1984, specifying the type of flour, the San Marzano tomatoes, the fior di latte mozzarella from Campania, the wood-fired oven temperature (485C), and the 60-90 second cook time that produces the characteristic char, the puffed cornicione, and the center so soft it must be eaten with a fork. This is not an imperfection. This is the point.

Naples is not an easy city. The streets are loud, the traffic is baroque, and the stray cats outnumber the pigeons. But the food — the pizza, the sfogliatelle from Scaturchio, the fried food from street vendors along Spaccanapoli — is an argument that nowhere else in Italy quite matches Naples for sheer alimentary joy. Come hungry. Come with cash. Come prepared to queue.