L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele

L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele traces its lineage to the Condurro family's pizza-making in Naples beginning around 1870, when Salvatore Condurro's methods were passed down through the family. His son Michele Condurro, trained in the technique by the Torre Annunziata pizza masters, opened the pizzeria under his own name in 1906, originally on the site now occupied by Ascalesi Hospital. Construction there forced a relocation, and in 1930 the pizzeria moved to its present address on Via Cesare Sersale, near Naples's historic center, where it has operated continuously since. During the Second World War, wartime shortages led the family to narrow the menu to just two pizzas — Margherita and Marinara — a restriction the pizzeria has kept ever since as a matter of identity rather than necessity, still serving no other varieties at its original Naples location. Now run by the fifth generation of the Condurro family, the original shop continues making large, low-priced pies without elaborate toppings, in contrast to the international outposts the brand has since opened in cities including Rome, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles and Dubai.