The Best Pizza Near La Villa, by the Record
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A pizza restaurant in the small Basilicata hill town of Rionero in Vulture, Glamour turns out long-fermented pies with a light, fragrant crust and toppings built around local Lucanian ingredients. The kitchen takes the pairing work seriously, and the room is modern and tidy without trying too hard. It placed on 50 Top Pizza Italy, which in southern Italy is a meaningful flag to plant. Good wine and beer list, attentive service.
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Rank 2. Forentum
Neapolitan Pizza
The dining room is a natural cave, which sets the tone before the food arrives. Forentum is a casual country-cooking restaurant in Lavello's historic center, with a terrace out front and Basilicata's pantry driving the menu, plus occasional seafood and, come evening, pizza in three distinct doughs. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the crowd seems largely local, which in a town this size is its own endorsement.
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A pizza spot run by three friends out of an old palazzo in Basilicata, with natural materials and warm light keeping things grounded without the usual designer fuss. The dough is the point: long-fermented, light, dry-edged, and never heavy. Ingredients lean hard on Vulture-area producers, some tied directly to the partners' own farms. The wine list follows the same regional logic. It landed on 50 Top Pizza Italy, which tracks.
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Rank 4. Il Balcone
Contemporary Pizza
A floor-to-ceiling window frames the Lucanian Apennines while you eat, which is either the second-best thing about this contemporary pizza spot or the first, depending on the day. The dough gets a long, careful ferment, landing somewhere between airy and substantial. Toppings lean into Apulian ingredients without turning the menu into a folklore exhibit. The beverage list holds its own, and the service is polished without being stiff.
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A pizzeria in Potenza where the dough choices are genuinely the draw: the whole-grain multigrain arrives toasted and fragrant, while the tomato-water version produces a golden, lightly crisp crust that somehow still feels clean on the palate. The kitchen takes fermentation and hydration seriously without making you sit through a lecture about it. Fried starters are the right way to open, the service keeps everything moving, and the wine and beer list pairs sensibly with the rest.
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Rank 6. Robertino Cupo
Contemporary Pizza
A contemporary pizza spot just off the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway, Robertino Cupo makes the case that pizza is a form of regional identity. The dough is high-hydration with biga, the crust slightly pronounced, and the toppings lean into local tradition without letting them overwhelm the base. The fried menu and a potato-focused section celebrate the Alburni hills. A spacious, well-kept room with a new outdoor terrace that handles aperitifs and small events.
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Rank 7. Casarsa – Pizzeria Lucana
Lucana Pizza
A dough built from type 0, wholemeal, and wheat germ flours gives the pizzas here a crispness and lightness that quietly sidesteps the pillowy Neapolitan orthodoxy everyone else seems to be chasing. This is a casual, neighbourhood pizzeria in Potenza with an informal, young energy and a menu rooted in Lucanian identity. The fried starters are worth the detour, and the craft beer selection leans local. Named among Italy's excellent pizzerias by 50 Top Pizza.
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Rank 8. Pizzeria Giovanni Grimaldi
Neapolitan Pizza
A Neapolitan pizza joint that transplanted itself, fully formed, to the center of a small Irpinian town. The dough is the classic southern style: bold, direct, with a restrained crust that stays out of its own way. Campanian ingredients run throughout, with a few Slow Food presidium products in the mix. The room is warm and unpretentious, with bits of Naples on the walls for anyone who needs the reminder of where the allegiances lie.
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A pizzeria in central Foggia where the doughs run light and the toppings are paired with the kind of deliberateness that earns the name "taste researchers." The room is compact and modern, the service quick, and they serve lunch, which in a city where pizza is mostly a night-out affair is a useful thing to know. Exactly the sort of neighbourhood spot that locals treat as a given and visitors quietly feel smug about finding.
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A pizzeria in the small piazza of Sicignano degli Alburni that has quietly become the go-to spot for the province of Salerno. The dough is soft and well-leavened, and the menu runs from pizza by the slice to fried homemade dishes. Local crusco peppers show up on the house pizza, which is a good reason to skip the deliberating and just order it. Young staff, decent wine and beer, no fuss.
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A pizza spot on the waterfront promenade in Margherita di Savoia, recently renovated around a large open oven that you can watch from your table. After splitting the family operation into a separate restaurant and pizzeria, the team narrowed their focus here: soft doughs, regional Pugliese flours, buffalo mozzarella from the Gargano. The menu runs from traditional pies to contemporary takes and stuffed focaccias. The family wine shop is a short walk away if you want to keep the evening going.
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Rank 12. Alterego Pizza Boutique
Contemporary Pizza
A pizza boutique in Andria where there's no menu to deliberate over, just a chef-driven tasting format that moves with the seasons. The doughs are long-fermented and light, and the toppings lean toward combinations you wouldn't have thought to order but wouldn't argue with afterward. Wine pairings are taken seriously here, which sets the room apart from your average slice situation. It ranked 85th on 50 Top Pizza Italy.
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A pizzeria just outside Atripalda's centro storico, with a wood-fired oven in plain sight and a floor team that somehow keeps pace on packed nights without breaking a sweat. The dough is contemporary Neapolitan, airy and a little blistered at the edges, and the gourmet section leans into Irpinian producers in a way that feels local rather than labored. The fried starters, potatoes especially, are worth slowing down for before the pizza arrives.
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Rank 14. I Borboni
Contemporary Pizza
A pizza spot in Pontecagnano that splits its attention between classic rounds and pan-fried double-baked slices with seasonal toppings, which is a more interesting menu architecture than most places bother with. The team roots everything in Campanian ingredients while still pushing into creative combinations. The wine list leans heavily regional, and the beer runs mostly artisanal. It landed at number 37 on 50 Top Pizza Italy, if you want a benchmark.
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Rank 15. Il Testone #pizzastore
Neapolitan Pizza
Neapolitan-style pizza in Avellino, a short walk from the old center, where the pies tend to spill past the plate edge without quite tipping over, which is apparently a fine line worth walking. The menu runs long with variations between tradition and house specialties, and the team will work off-script with seasonal ingredients if you ask. A trattoria kitchen runs alongside the pizza, folding regional recipes into the mix.
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A pizzeria that's been an institution in Benevento for generations, a short walk from the Arch of Trajan, named after a beloved 1950s Italian film star. The dough is Neapolitan-style, long-leavened and light, and the toppings lean into the local pantry, Sannio sausage, caciocavallo, regional olive oil. Service is warm and knows what it's doing, which in a town this size means everyone probably knows your order already.
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Rank 17. Lievito 72
Contemporary Pizza
The dough rests for 72 hours before it sees the oven, which is where the name comes from and where the logic of this contemporary pizzeria begins. The result is a square-cut pizza with a thin, almost imperceptible crust that stays light even after a second slice. Stone-ground flours and sourdough, toppings added at the table, ingredients that are mostly Apulian. The room is spare and unfussy, the drinks list longer than you'd expect.