The number of oven-focused places grows in our publication because there’s a growing number of high quality places across the country.

A phenomenon that is spreading quickly: with new places in Trentino Alto Adige (Enosteria I Momenti), Sardinia (Sa Scolla) and Apulia (four, in fact: Le Macàre and Taverna del Porto, with a double soul, given they’re also taverns – and 400 Gradi and Lievito 72, where the focus is – almost – complete).

Lombardy leads overall, with 16 trophies, including LoRo, which serves pizza too, but is first of all a starred, fully accomplished restaurant. This also applies to Stefano Ciotti’s Nostrano in the Marche.

Campania follows with 9 mentions, and Lazio with 8. This is the region with the largest number of pizzerias in one town, Rome. Indeed all the pizzerias in Lazio are there, while Milan has 6 (after a recent thrilling recovery - there was nothing here once) and Naples has 5.

Only 6 regions out of 20 have no recommended pizzerias: small Valle d’Aosta, Molise and Umbria, plus Liguria (a pity), Calabria (but the local culinary scene is powerfully growing, so we have good hope for the future) and Sicily, which is the most serious lack: for sure there’s not a big tradition, there’s an alternative street food here, but how can it be that a region that’s so rich in terms of food, has 0 pizzerias, while its restaurants in the Guida IG 2018 are increasing in number, and this year are 40?

In other words, there’s a fault, though the overall picture is fantastic. Below, we have the 8 foreign pizzerias, all new or appearing for the second time, which shows that this phenomenon is spreading abroad too. But most of all, what strikes is he total number, 68, knowing that others would deserve and will deserve a mention at some point.

In the first edition of Guida Identità Golose, in 2008, there were only 2 reviews of pizzerias, and not because we were lazy (we’ve always been in favour of opening our doors to properly-made Margheritas or Quattro Stagioni).

These were Simone Padoan’s I Tigli in Veneto and Gabriele Bonci’s Pizzarium in Rome.

The following year, Giancarlo Casa’s La Gatta Mangiona and  Stefano Callegari's Sforno also in Rome appeared.

They’re in our list to these days, and all in excellent health, even 11 years later. This shows the choice of quality, taken then, was a winning one.

Carlo Passera
source: http://www.identitagolose.it/news/view.php?id=66

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