L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele

The people behind it

L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele is the pizzeria of the Condurro family, who date their business to 1870 and still carry the name of Michele, the pizza maker after whom it is named. Scatti di Gusto, writing in 2017 about Laura Condurro's book on the family history, recalls that the oven and the counter were built in 1904 and that the handover between generations has kept the tradition unchanged for over a century.

Today the company's public face is Alessandro Condurro, fifth generation and chief executive of L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele in the World, the company that has taken the brand beyond Naples. According to Lo Speciale, reporting an interview from early 2026, the group opened twelve new venues in 2025, reaching eighty worldwide, with over a thousand staff in all and more than one hundred and eighty employees of the group in Campania. The historic home, however, remains the one in Forcella.

Sources: Scatti di Gusto — Pizzeria Da Michele, il libro di Laura Condurro (2017) · Lo Speciale — Condurro (Antica Pizzeria da Michele in the world): 12 aperture nel mondo nel 2025 (2026) · Dissapore — Alessandro Condurro fa il lavapiatti nell'Antica Pizzeria da Michele (2024)

What they make

At Da Michele the choice is deliberately narrow. The pizzeria's website lists only four pizzas on the menu, "to guarantee quality", and a pursuit of the flavours of the past. Dissapore's review of the Forcella branch names them: Margherita, Marinara, Cosacca and Marita; the Margherita carries Agerola fior di latte, the Cosacca tomato, basil and pecorino, and according to the reviewer it is the one that best shows off the quality of the dough.

The pizza is the wide Neapolitan one, "like a cartwheel", which the 50 Top Pizza guide cites as the brand's hallmark. In 2017 Dissapore described a dough made with Caputo Blu flour, a wood-fired oven at around 500 degrees and some seven hundred pizzas baked every day. The website recalls that even famous guests, from Maradona to Julia Roberts, did not shy away from the ritual of the long wait at the door.

Sources: L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele — sito ufficiale · Dissapore — L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele dal 1870: recensione della sede di Forcella · Dissapore — Da Michele: come si porta nel mondo la più famosa pizzeria di Napoli (2017) · 50 Top Pizza — 50 Top World Artisan Pizza Chains 2025: Da Michele is the best artisanal pizza chain in the world

Ingredients and territory

The heart of the Margherita is Agerola fior di latte, the stretched-curd cow's-milk cheese of the Lattari Mountains. Scatti di Gusto writes that it has been supplied for eighty years by Gennaro Fusco's Fior d'Agerola, a company founded in 1840 that made provolone and fior di latte; Fusco notes that a fior di latte that breaks instead of stretching on the pizza is not fresh. Dissapore, in its 2017 interview, also names the Fusco dairy of Agerola as the mozzarella supplier.

The link has survived the expansion: in early 2026 Alessandro Condurro stated that the Agerola fior di latte on the pizzas in Forcella is the same one served in Dubai, Tokyo and Sydney. The other suppliers cited are Campanian family firms: Solea tomatoes from the Fortunato family and, for the oil, the Fratelli Masturzo company. The pizzeria's website speaks of Campanian excellences, from the flour to the fior di latte to the oil.

Sources: Scatti di Gusto — Pizzeria Da Michele, il libro di Laura Condurro (2017) · Dissapore — Da Michele: come si porta nel mondo la più famosa pizzeria di Napoli (2017) · Lo Speciale — Condurro (Antica Pizzeria da Michele in the world): 12 aperture nel mondo nel 2025 (2026) · L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele — sito ufficiale

Recognition

In 2025 the 50 Top Pizza guide, edited by Barbara Guerra, Luciano Pignataro and Albert Sapere, placed Da Michele first in its 50 Top World Artisan Pizza Chains ranking, devoted to artisan pizzeria chains around the world; the ranking was presented at the European Pizza Show in London. The citation published by the guide notes that the brand has been rooted for a hundred and fifty years in the heart of Forcella and now has more than seventy locations across several continents, where the "cartwheel" pizza is served.

It should be said clearly that this award honours the brand and its network, not the historic branch alone. For the Forcella pizzeria there is Dissapore's review, which gives it 9 out of 10 and praises faultless baking, while noting chaotic service at peak times and no access for people with disabilities.

Sources: 50 Top Pizza — 50 Top World Artisan Pizza Chains 2025: Da Michele is the best artisanal pizza chain in the world · Dissapore — L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele dal 1870: recensione della sede di Forcella

Going there

The pizzeria is at Via Cesare Sersale 1, in the Forcella quarter, in the centre of Naples. The website gives the number +39 081 5539204 and the pizzeria's email address for contact. The website itself makes clear, in effect, that the wait is part of the experience: even the best-known visitors have not escaped the ritual of the long queue.

Dissapore's review advises allowing for crowds and chaotic service at peak times, a limited choice of drinks and premises that are not accessible to people with disabilities. Besides the historic branch, the website lists the Da Michele pizzerias opened in Campania at Salerno, Aversa, Pompeii and Caserta, and the franchised venues in Italy and abroad; anyone looking for Agerola fior di latte at the brand's place of origin, however, needs to come to Forcella.

Sources: L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele — sito ufficiale · Dissapore — L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele dal 1870: recensione della sede di Forcella

Products and flavours

The region

Campania