The countdown has started for pizza lovers worldwide as they pack their bibs and head for the mecca of haute cuisine – Naples Pizzafest. This was the city where the first ever pizza was created and that gastronomic achievement is celebrated for ten days each year in mid September. Visitors alighting from the plane in nearby Napoli airport will be greeted by the delicious aroma of fresh tomato sauce and cooked cheese.
You may think it impossible to fill 10 days with pizza, but visitors to Napoli’s Pizzafest will know that the whole city gets involved. There is a continuous program of music, theatre, cabaret and pizza-orientated activities. Whole days are dedicated to cheese tasting, there are classes on pizza making, serious lectures on the important attributes of buffalo mozzarella, essential tools for making and cutting pizza and sampling of some of Italy’s finest olive oil.
In the evening, set price meals offer a pizza, coffee and a limoncello drink for a bargain price. All this gorging has to produce a winner and a sophisticated electronic voting system is in place for pizza tasters to record their vote on a system which could easily handle any third world national election. This is far more important, as the prize for the best pizza is highly contended.
So where does pizza come from? Apparently the Greeks first made rounds of bread in Naples and baked things on the top, but they were at a serious disadvantage as tomatoes had not yet been introduced to Italy from Peru. The oldest true pizza is the Marinara, simply topped with fresh tomato sauce and herbs to welcome the sailors home from their expeditions – hence the name Marinara.
In 1889 King Umberto and Queen Margherita made a royal visit to Naples and local baker, Raffaele Esposito, created a new pizza in honour of the occasion using white cheese, red tomato sauce and fresh green basil, the colors of the Italian flag. In true boot-licking style he named it Margherita Pizza in honour of the queen. After this guaranteed success, pizzerias sprang up with brick ovens everywhere and the innovative development of pizzas began, making it one of the most popular dishes in the world today.
I have searched high and low to find a webcam of a pizza-making business, but to date I have had no success. There are webcams on fish and chip shops, chocolate shops, french bakeries and sushi making, but as yet no pizza kitchens. So this blog comes with a challenge. If you can find a pizza business with a live webcam, please add it to our collection of otherwise super webcams. In the meantime, here’s a poor substitute, a webcam showing views across the Bay of Naples to Mount Vesuvius.
- Why not also check out:
- Our Free Webcams Directory
- Trending Webcams right now