Spaccanapoli — the street that splits Naples' old city along its ancient Greek axis — is a corridor of churches, palazzi, and noise, and Leopoldo Infante sits at its heart dispensing taralli, babà, and sfogliatelle from a modest shopfront. The taralli zuccherati are the house distinction: ring-shaped biscuits glazed with crackled sugar, somewhere between cookie and bread, specific enough to Naples that visitors mistake them for a recent invention rather than a tradition older than most buildings on the street. The babà are small, the sfogliatelle competent, and the transaction — point, pay, paper bag — takes under two minutes. Not a destination so much as a punctuation mark: the sweet pause between Santa Chiara and Piazza San Domenico Maggiore.
Location
Spaccanapoli, Napoli
Map
Insider Intel
Taralli sugared — the glazed ring biscuits that are Naples' most underrated sweet tradition. A babà al rum for the canonical Neapolitan pastry experience. Sfogliatelle if you have not yet had your daily quota. Buy a mixed paper bag of taralli to carry — they keep better than any other Neapolitan pastry and make an honest edible souvenir.
Late morning, timed to a Spaccanapoli walk — start at Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, walk east, and stop at Leopoldo Infante before reaching Piazza San Domenico Maggiore. The street is liveliest between 10am and 1pm. Afternoons are quieter but the selection may thin.
Via Benedetto Croce 30/31, Spaccanapoli. Dante metro (Line 1), then a 7-minute walk east along Spaccanapoli. Taralli from 1 EUR, babà 2 EUR, sfogliatelle 1.50-2 EUR. Cash preferred. No seating — eat on the street or carry the paper bag onward. Spaccanapoli is pedestrianised in practice if not in law; watch for the occasional scooter threading through the crowd.