14 / 20 How we score Italian $ $$$ Mount Vesuvius. Diego Maradona. Terrific disco : all are things that the world associates with Naples, the capital of Campania and Italy’s third-biggest city.
Naples is, of course, also synonymous with good eating and considered by many to be the birthplace of modern-day pizza. It’s also the birthplace of pizza chefs Andrea Orabona and Antonio Carrino. After meeting at Pizzeria Da Leo – Carrino had recently arrived from Sydney and was looking for work; Orabona was one of Da Leo’s partners – and bonding over their shared heritage, the duo hatched plans to open a shop where they could really put their hometown’s good stuff front and centre.
Those plans materialised last year as Pizzeria Da Napoli: a clean-cut shopfront in Como giving way to splashes of forest green and glimpses of an open kitchen replete with gleaming copper-plated pizza oven. Whereas some pizzerias rely on maximalism and well-worn Italo design tropes to sell you their tricolore credentials, Da Napoli simply feels Italian. Staff and customers don’t miss a chance to speak rapid-fire in their native tongue.
Italian pop songs feature on the playlist. Fashion choices among guests run from streetwear to sprezzatura , that elusive Italian concept of unforced elegance. Swag never takes a day off, nor do team Da Napoli who – God bless them – trade seven nights.
As if on cue, two pals arrive in a scooter to grab a pick-up order that they carefully pack in a box at the.