The Best Pizza Near La Capanna di Eraclio, by the Record
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A Neapolitan-style pizzeria tucked under an ancient portico in central Ferrara, where writing in Campanian dialect covers the walls and two ovens handle both traditional and gluten-free pies. The chef came up from Salerno and the dough shows it, long-leavened and properly puffy. Seating spills across two floors in a room that feels more southern Italy than northern. The "ruoto" pan pizzas, rooted in rural Campanian tradition, are worth the short walk from wherever you managed to park.
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The pizza at Me put Ferrara on the map for a style the team calls "true contemporary," Naples-rooted but lighter than you'd expect, with a steam-cooked option that tilts the bill toward restaurant territory. The cocktail pairings are part of the pitch, though a thoughtfully assembled international wine list is there for the holdouts. Desserts come in jars. It's a pizzeria that takes itself seriously without being insufferable about it.
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The place still has no sign out front, which either says something about confidence or about the family that built it on a Renault 4 delivery route. Balobino is a pizza restaurant in Lendinara, minimal and quiet, where the dough is taken as seriously as a religion and the crust aims for something the menu calls cloud-like. Natural wines and beers chosen with the same fussiness as the flour. It made 50 Top Pizza Italy's Excellent Pizzerias list.
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Rank 4. Gigi Pipa
Wood-fired Pizza
A former match factory in Este is now a pizzeria with a garden, which is exactly the kind of origin story that sounds invented but isn't. The chef runs three styles of pizza, wood-fired classics, tasting pies in a contemporary style, and thin Roman rounds, with vegetables and ingredients pulled largely from small local producers. Ranked in the 50 Top Pizza Italy and World lists, it earns a Forno Verde special award for its green sourcing focus.
- 50 Top Pizza #88 · 50 Top Pizza World
- 50 Top Pizza #29 · 50 Top Pizza Italy
- 50 Top Pizza 2026 · Forno Verde · 50 Top Pizza Italy Special Awards
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A former tobacco-drying shed at the north edge of Abano Terme, now a pizzeria with high ceilings, open space, and a wood-fired oven doing serious work. The dough runs in several directions: traditional biga, whole wheat, burnt wheat, and contemporary Neapolitan, all landing crispy and light. Tables fill fast, which tells you something about how the price sits relative to what arrives. The outdoor areas help with overflow.
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Rank 6. ‘O Fiore Mio
Wood-fired Pizza
A pizza shop set along Faenza's old city walls, with a following that stretches across Emilia Romagna and into Milan and Bologna. The doughs use organic Italian flours and long leavening, cooked in a wood-fired oven, and the menu walks you through a selection of extra virgin olive oils to pair with your slice. The room is informal and contemporary, the service moves, and the regulars already know exactly what they're ordering. Ranked 25th in Italy by 50 Top Pizza.
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The oregano is crushed by hand, which tells you something about how seriously this family-run pizzeria in Vigonza takes its craft. Franco Barbato has been making Neapolitan-style pies since he was a teenager, and the room still carries that pleasantly faded charm that no interior designer could fake. The marinara and buffalo mozzarella Verace are the heart of it, though the sausage and friarielli is the one to order if it's on.
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Rank 8. Civico 25
Pizza
A pizzeria in Emilia Romagna built around a social mission, where young people with disabilities and survivors of bullying make up the team, and where the pizza itself is the thing that keeps people coming back. The crust runs high and crisps nicely, and the panuozzo from Romagna and the pinsa round out a menu that takes the food as seriously as the cause. The staff greets you like they mean it.
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A pizzeria sitting out in open countryside, which already tells you something about the regulars who make the drive. The menu breaks pizzas into revisited, award-winning, and chef's specials, and the fish options are taken more seriously than you'd expect. Wines and beers run deep, service is warm without being fussy, and 50 Top Pizza Italy has it among their Excellent Pizzerias.
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Rank 10. Storie Dipinte
Pizza
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Rank 11. Birraria La Corte
Neapolitan Pizza
Neapolitan pizza a short walk from the Rialto, served in a room that opens onto a courtyard with a square beyond it, which is as good as Venice gets for lunch. The dough is long-leavened and pillowy, and the team leans into local produce, lagoon vegetables and Sant'Erasmo artichoke alongside the occasional mainland import. It draws a steady mix of Italians and visitors who found it without too much trouble from the train station.
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Rank 12. Grigoris
Pizza
A pizzeria in the Venetian mainland that seats 300 people and still runs multiple shifts on weekends, which tells you something. The chef is self-taught and built his reputation on high-hydration sourdough, with San Marzano tomatoes and fiordilatte from Agerola keeping the sourcing honest. The seafood pizzas are the move, built around Sicilian anchovies, Scardovari mussels, and octopus. It placed on 50 Top Pizza Italy.
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Rank 13. Strazzaria
Venetian Pizza
Sitting on Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, this pizza restaurant opened recently with a specific idea: fold classic Venetian dishes into the pie. Risi e bisi, cuttlefish in their ink, tiny lagoon shrimp, all reimagined as toppings, which sounds like it shouldn't work until it does. Hundreds of wine bottles line the walls, the list is serious, and the staff actually knows it. A genuinely new concept for Venice, where new concepts are rare.
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Rank 14. Span
Neapolitan Pizza
The menu announces that pizza has no owners, no masters, and belongs to the people, which sets the tone immediately. This is a Neapolitan pizza spot, one of three Bologna locations, with classic and creative pies, a short beer list, and traditional southern desserts. Reservations aren't taken, so a wait is part of the deal. There's a small terrace if the noise inside gets to you, and the bill won't get to you either.
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A pizzeria in the Venetian hinterland where the dough gets lighter every season and the seafood toppings are worth the detour from Venice proper. The beer list is taken as seriously as the pizza, which tells you something about the crowd. Dessert shows up at the end, which sounds obvious until it doesn't, and here it earns its place. A neighborhood spot that keeps quietly raising its own bar.
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Rank 16. Zio Mo’
Pizza
A sprawling pizza spot where the dough changes before you've settled on a favorite, because the kitchen is always mid-experiment. The mix of flours and hydration levels shifts with the seasons, so the menu runs from timeless classics to stuffed calzones to high-hydration variations that feel like a different argument for what pizza can be. The room is big and popular in the way a place gets when the neighborhood has actually adopted it. Ranked among 50 Top Pizza Italy.
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Rank 17. Pedrocchino
Pizza
A pizzeria where the chef, Walter Rampazzo, turns the dough itself into the menu, offering versions made with seawater, charcoal, or put through a triple-cooking process of steam, fry, and bake. The space has grown over the years into a sprawling multi-room spot with nearly two hundred seats and a garden with a pool. Long-leavened doughs, a solid beer selection, and a wine list round things out.
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The wine cellar here could embarrass a proper restaurant, which tells you a lot about a pizza place. Prego is a sit-down pizzeria where stone-ground flour keeps the dough light and the pairings lean on a nutritionist's input, an unusual touch. Craft beer shows up, but wine is the real thread running through the meal. Desserts nod to Campania, so save room. It's on the 50 Top Pizza Italy Excellent Pizzerias list.