Food Tours · Tour

Arancini on Tribunali, Then the Deep-Fried Pizza

Two and a half hours through the historic centre, meeting at the Greek ruins on Piazza Bellini, where a fragment of the fourth-century BC city wall sits several metres below the current street level because Naples has spent two and a half thousand years building on top of itself. On Via dei Tribunali you eat frittatine, small fried discs of pasta bound with béchamel and usually holding ham and peas, and arancini, rice balls with mozzarella melting in the middle. The walk takes in Spaccanapoli, the ruler-straight street that splits the old centre in two and is visible as a dark line from any hill above the city, then Piazza del Gesù, Santa Chiara and back around. On San Gregorio Armeno, where nativity artisans work all year and the Conservatory of San Pietro a Maiella has trained musicians since the sixteenth century, comes the stop the operator calls the highlight: pizza fritta, the whole pizza deep-fried instead of baked, which is what Naples ate when wood for the ovens was scarce and which never went away. Fresh mozzarella, taralli and sfogliatelle fill out the rest. You pass the Basilicas of San Paolo Maggiore and San Lorenzo, and end on Via Toledo where taxis are easy to find. Up to fifteen travellers, guided in English, moderate walking. Vegetarians can be accommodated; vegans, coeliacs and dairy-free diets cannot. Drinks are not included.