Naples and pizza

Tight schedule. Personally I would visit the excellent Archeology Museum, which includes the best mosaics and artifacts from Pompeii, and skip going up Vesuvius. This would give you time for the Museum and a pizza lunch, then an afternoon at the ruins in Pompeii and on to Sorrento for dinner and the evening. The exhibits at the Museum really give more life to the ruins. The staff at the Museum recommended Starita's for pizza, which is a few blocks up the hill from the Museum, and I was very pleased there. It is an old and famous pizza spot, but maybe not the oldest or most famous. If you follow your original schedule, I doubt you would find pizza to go at 8:00 am, certainly not the best way to enjoy Napolitano pizza anyway, but no doubt you should find plenty of pizza available when you pass through again in the evening.

ughhh I really want to go up Vesuvius. Have you been up there?

Let me look into Vesuvius vs. Museum. The museum, according to Rick's book, takes about 2-3 hours?

I would not miss the arch. Museum at least give it 45 min it is a blockbuster to italys arch and Pompeii. Re pizza i cannot tell u were to have a slice but follow rick steves suggestion. How something so simple can taste so diff than here in usa baffles me but it is true with pizza margarita and pesto.
I have been many times to italy and continue to be amazed. At this pt i just enjoy every return trip and forget the mystery as to why it tastes so gd. And it really doesnt matter if t is upscale restaurant or not.

JS you just made me 10x more excited for the pizza. Honestly, I have terrible taste buds and I feel like all the big chains like dominoes, papa john's, pizza hut all taste the same to me. Even with local shops, I have a hard time tasting the difference.

Is that that big of a difference?

By the way, is it just the pizza in Naples that tastes very different, or just Italy in general?
Can you taste the difference between Naples pizza and say Rome's pizza?

For us it would be a shame to be in Naples and NOT eat Pizza!! We are traveling from Florence to Sorrento, through Naples. We are storing our luggage in Naples and getting pizza, we already have the place picked out, have mapped our walk from the train station to the Pizza Place, have watched You-Tube videos on how to line up etc....then on the way from Sorrento to Rome, again stopping in Naples, storing our luggage and going to yet another Pizza place (already researched). If you REALLY want to eat the Pizza I think you will have time on the 10th if you get to Pompeii early and get back to Naples around 8pm? It looks like there are places you can grab a slice and eat on the street...

I will definitely get it on the night of the 12th.

If I visit the national archaeological museum I will grab pizza for lunch. Can you get a takeout box of pizza?

I think there's a big difference between Naples pizza and Rome pizza. Rome pizza has a thin crisp wood-fired crust, and personally I like it better. Try the original Baffetto near Piazza Navona. For reasons I can't explain, the pizza there always tastes better to me than the ones at their Baffetto 2 location near Campo dei Fiori. A lot of people like the pizza at Dar Poeta in Trastevere (it is good), but their crust is much thicker and you won't get the contrast with Naples pizza.

From my understanding, the pizza in Italy is so much better than anywhere in the US because of the flour used as well as the tomatoes, cheese, etc. etc. OMG, I am salivating just thinking about the pizza! I have not had pizza in Naples, but will some day!

I wouldn't skip the museum as most of the artifacts from Pompeii are there, not in Pompeii. We visited the museum AFTER Pompeii but I think either order will give you good context.

If you are a volcanophile, that's one thing, but you do get amazing views of Vesuvius from Naples and Pompeii--which made me less enthused about making time for it. I definitely wanted to see the artifacts that were removed from Pompeii, so I would choose the museum over Vesuvius--you need not spend three hours. Just down the street from the museum is my favorite pizza place--Attanasio. Though we only ate at two (lunch and dinner, ha!)
Be sure to check hours wherever you go--pizza is more of a dinner thing in Italy. I love pizza and do not eat the processed junk that passes for it from American chains. Neapolitan pizza is a different food altogether--soft in the center, grilled on the bottom. Not everyone falls in love with it. Also not sure about takeaway options--this is pizza eaten with a fork and knife.

The pizza in Naples is great. You don't want a pre-made slice on the street. Go to a restaurant and have one freshly made if you have the time. Considering the time you have I strongly recommend going to Herculaneum instead of Pompeii. Firstly, Herculaneum is smaller and better preserved...easy to get to from Naples and very easy walk around, you can see it in 1.5 hours or take your time and stay 2.5. Pompeii is HUGE and requires tons of walking from sight to sight. I cannot stress this enough, if you are not fit do not go to Pompeii, especially not from mid May - mid- September. Go to the archeological museum, as that is where all of the artifacts from both of these sights are. The Naples region is pretty much the same style pizza. Just make sure it is "al forno" cooked in a wood oven. Unless you are going for one of the big 2 places in Naples, just relax and have a nice pizza in Sorrento. Enjoy Italy!

While Pompeii is extremely interesting, the very best of the artifacts found there are expertly preserved in the Naples Museum. This includes personal items, frescoes, dishes, astonishing glassware, sculpture, gladitorial equipment, preserved food, and cosmetics. Pompeii can show you where these people lived. The Naples Museum shows you HOW they lived. I consider visiting one a necessary accompaniment to visiting the other.

I have been up Vesuvius largely because it was part of a tour package. Having done so once, I've no desire to do it again. It is worth noting that if the weather is bad, you won't see very much and you'll have chewed up time you might have spent somewhere else. I have also been to the Naples Museum and would go back in a heartbeat and stay for far, far longer.