My Take on Pizza: Italy vs. USA

So, when I made it to Italy there were so many things I was so excited to eat! There are so many dishes in the United States that we call "Italian" and I was excited to see the original recipes. The first one being spaghetti (sorry if you thought I was going to say pizza haha). It was amazing and they make it in so many different ways, my favorite being the zucchini spaghetti.

Besides the spaghetti, I also wanted to try authentic Italian pizza! Growing up, my mom made me pizza from scratch (even the dough) all the time. I remember loving to help her make it with my friends during our slumber parties (cheers to slumber parties in the 90's--can you hear a Mary Kate and Ashley song coming on?). Back to Italy though, I had high expectations for this pizza because of my upbringing!

 The picture at the top is pizza from Napoli (AKA Naples). It was ranked on some thing in Italy somewhere as being "the best". I would say that it was very tasty. You can tell the ingredients are fresh. The place was so busy that the pizza was coming hot out of the oven. The crust was well made. It was delicious. HOWEVER (that's a big however haha), I still think my mom makes the best pizza. And, I think Americans put their own spin on pizza in a way that Italians cannot. I think Italians win on the freshness of ingredients because we don't have the tomatoes grown in the rich volcanic soil, and we don't make our cheese from happy cows from up the mountain. But, if you want to put a whole garden on your pizza, they will be mad you even asked in Italy. In America, you can get it without question. Although, I think almost all of us can agree that pineapple does not belong on pizza--so America went wrong there. Also, in some places in Italy they have cold pizza sitting in the window and they warm it up when you go to buy it...what a disgrace (but so are the heat lamps used at pizza hut).

America wins on the limitless ingredients we can put on our pizza. For example, I had a chicken pesto pizza that had sundried tomatoes and feta cheese. That's not something you can get in Italy, but the ingredients are still very high quality. We also do crust any way you want: thin, crispy, deep dish, doughy.

Italy wins on the quality of mozzarella and tomato sauce and fresh basil. Every time.

It really should be on all pizza-lovers bucket lists to have pizza in Napoli, and you can tell me what you think.

Have you had pizza abroad or any experiences related to food in Italy? I would love for you to comment below!