Since 1870, the Condurro family has served exactly two pizzas — margherita and marinara — and the radical austerity of that menu is the point. There is no antipasto, no dessert, no concession to variety. You take a number from the dispenser, wait on the pavement, and when your turn arrives you sit at a marble-topped table in a room tiled white like a bathhouse and order one of two things. The margherita arrives blistered and leopard-spotted from the wood-fired oven, the mozzarella pooling into San Marzano tomato sauce, the cornicione pillowy and faintly charred. It costs around six euros. Elizabeth Gilbert made it famous in Eat Pray Love, but the queue existed long before Hollywood. This is not the best pizza in Naples — that argument never ends — but it is the most essential.
Location
Centro Storico, Napoli
Insider Intel
Margherita — the only real choice for a first visit, EUR 5.50-7. Marinara (tomato, garlic, oregano, no cheese) for the purist second round at EUR 4-5. There is nothing else on the menu and nothing else is needed. Double up if hungry — the pizzas are not large by modern standards.
Arrive before 11:30 for lunch or before 18:30 for dinner to minimise the queue. Midweek is significantly calmer than weekends. The queue moves steadily — thirty to forty-five minutes is typical at peak, fifteen minutes off-peak. Do not attempt Saturday lunch without patience.
Via Cesare Sersale 1-3, Centro Storico. Garibaldi metro (Line 1 or Line 2), five-minute walk. Take a number at the door and wait. Cash only. Margherita EUR 5.50-7, marinara EUR 4-5. No reservations, no menu beyond two pizzas, no Wi-Fi, no pretence. The system has not changed in over a century and will not change for you.