February 9th is National Pizza Day! The most important day of the year for those of us who would cross a time zone for a calzone. We’ve travelled to the ends of the earth and back seeking the best pizza in the world, and we lived to tell the tale.
Enjoy a slice today in honour of some of our favourite pizza destinations around the world. Who knows? This savoury list might just inspire your next foodie getaway!
1. Naples, Italy
Let’s get the obvious choice out of the way! Home of the original modern pizza, Naples is simply an unmissable destination for food travel. You can find the oldest pizzeria in the world here, L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, and enjoy a gooey wood-oven Neapolitan pizza that will make your eyes roll back. Plus, if you want the real inside scoop, you can join #1 New York Times Best Selling author, Patricia Schultz on an eye-opening tour through Naples, Venice, Florence, Palermo, and Rome with Trafalgar!
2. New York City, USA
Pizza might have been born in Italy, but its younger brother, American pizza, has undoubtedly taken the globe by storm. Head to one of the USA’s pizza capitals for a true New York style pizza. Then you can decide whether you’re on the side of folding those tasty, thin pizza slices like a sandwich or eating them face up.
3. Budapest, Hungary
If you’re ready to meet pizza’s extended family, get the real deal in Budapest. You might expect the first deep-fried pizza to have originated in the US, but you’ll find a unique spin on European pizza in the popular Hungarian street food: Lángos. Lángos consist of a deep-fried dough served with a variety of toppings, the most popular of which are garlic sauce, ham, cheese, sour cream, and cabbage.
4. Los Angeles, USA
One of the best things about pizza is its versatility- and the best place to appreciate the possibilities is in Cali! For some of the most creative and innovative pizza flavour profiles (not to mention the welcome abundance of vegan and vegetarian choices), you can’t do better than LA.
5. Kansai Region, Japan
Japan’s food scene is unlike anywhere in the world, and it’s no surprise that you’ll find an Eastern spin on pizza in the big cities (and no, we don’t mean sushi pizza). Order up some okonomiyaki, a savoury combination of flour, nagaimo, cabbage, and eggs grilled like a pancake then topped with your choice of tasty ingredients and sauces.
6. Istanbul, Turkey
If you love Turkish cuisine as much as we do, you’ll adore the vibrant flavours of Turkey’s pizza equivalent, the pide. Pide is a canoe-shaped slice of heaven, which you can customize with your favourite savoury, cheesy toppings. This is one pizza dish nobody would mock you about for eating with cutlery.
7. Chicago, USA
You’d be hard-pressed to celebrate national pizza day without indulging in a Chicago-style deep dish pizza! To be fair, that thick pizza pie with upside-down toppings isn’t Chicago’s only iconic dish. You can crawl the city for some of the best cheese-stuffed and thin-crust pizza in the country.
8. Palermo, Italy
Sicilian-style pizza is anything but square (ahem, except that it’s literally square). Travel to Palermo to indulge in a true sfincione pizza, which is made from a mixture of pizza and bread dough which are left to rise before going into the oven. Unlike most pizzas, this one foregoes the cheese, but we can’t get enough of it just the same.
Hungry for a slice? When you travel with Flight Centre, you get access to our vast network of Expert Travellers who are obsessed with making the details of your trip extra special- down to firsthand recommendations for the ultimate pizza day. Pop into a Flight Centre store near you today to get started!