If Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy left you hungry for Neapolitan food, this guide will help you follow in his footsteps. It covers the Stanley Tucci Naples restaurants featured in the first episode, along with his stops on Ischia and the Amalfi Coast. You’ll find what he ate, where each restaurant is located and whether you can still visit it today.
- Naples is a must-visit foodie destination, famed for coffee, San Marzano tomatoes, and mozzarella di bufala.
- Try fried pizza at Pizza Fritta da Fernanda—a historic, inventive street-food staple born from postwar scarcity.
- Visit Pizzeria La Notizia for wood-fired classics and firsthand insights into ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes.
- Explore unexpected spots like Chicù and Amalfi’s pastries (Pastry Sal De Riso) for social impact and lemon treats.
Stanley Tucci Naples restaurants at a glance
Not every restaurant featured in the Naples episode is in the city itself. Tucci also travels to Ischia, the Sorrentine Peninsula and the Amalfi Coast.
| Restaurant | Location | Featured dish | Status | Planning note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pizza Fritta da Fernanda | Spanish Quarter, Naples | Pizza fritta | Permanently closed | Try Zia Esterina Sorbillo instead |
| Antica Pizza Fritta da Zia Esterina Sorbillo | Historic centre, Naples | Pizza fritta | Open | Alternative not featured in the show |
| Pizzeria La Notizia 53 | Naples | Neapolitan pizza | Open | Booking recommended |
| Chicù | Scampia, Naples | Neapolitan and Romani cuisine | Open | Visit for weekday lunch or reserve dinner |
| Trattoria Il Focolare | Ischia | Coniglio all’ischitana | Open | Requires a ferry and onward transport |
| Lo Scoglio da Tommaso | Marina del Cantone | Spaghetti alla Nerano | Open | Book well ahead in summer |
| Pasticceria Sal De Riso | Minori, Amalfi Coast | Delizia al limone | Open | Expect queues during busy periods |
Restaurant information checked in August 2026. Confirm opening hours and booking requirements before visiting.
About Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy is a two-season food and travel series that explores Italy through its regional dishes. Tucci meets chefs, farmers, restaurant owners and local residents to learn how food connects with each region’s culture and history.
Tucci brings real culinary experience to the series. In addition to being an actor, he is an enthusiastic home cook, cookbook author and former restaurant owner. His Italian-American background also gives him a personal connection to the places and traditions featured in the program.
The first episode, “Naples and the Amalfi Coast,” begins in Naples before travelling to Ischia, Nerano and Minori. Along the way, Tucci tries traditional pizza, Ischia-style rabbit, spaghetti alla Nerano and desserts made with Amalfi Coast lemons.
In each episode, Tucci tours a different Italian region and introduces the audience to the different food styles and flavours. He meets chefs, winemakers, restaurateurs, guides, historians, artists, and activists while sampling all the local flavours. The first episode takes us to Naples and the Amalfi Coast.
Don’t miss out: Book your Naples Food Tour today
Stanley Tucci Naples restaurants from Searching for Italy
Naples is one of Italy’s great food cities, known for its pizza, coffee and street food. The surrounding Campania region also produces San Marzano tomatoes and mozzarella di bufala, two ingredients that play an important role in the episode.
The Stanley Tucci Naples restaurants featured in the programme range from a small street-food stall to a pizzeria known for carefully sourced local ingredients. His first stop introduces viewers to one of the city’s most comforting foods: pizza fritta.
Pizza Fritta da Fernanda
Current status: Permanently closed
Location: Via Speranzella 180, Quartieri Spagnoli, Naples
Featured food: Pizza fritta
Tucci begins his Naples food tour at Pizza Fritta da Fernanda, a tiny street-food stall once run from the doorway of a basso, a traditional ground-floor home in the Spanish Quarter. Here, he tries pizza fritta, dough folded around a filling and fried until crisp and golden.
Fried pizza became common in Naples after World War II. Many ovens were damaged, and traditional pizza ingredients were expensive. Frying required no wood-fired oven, and the dough expanded in the oil, creating an inexpensive, filling meal. Traditional fillings include ricotta, provola, tomato, black pepper and cicoli, pieces of cooked pork fat.
Pizza Fritta da Fernanda has since closed, but fried pizza remains easy to find across Naples.
Where to try instead: Antica Pizza Fritta da Zia Esterina Sorbillo
Via dei Tribunali 35, Naples
This casual Sorbillo location specializes in pizza fritta and pizza a portafoglio. It is a good central option for trying the Neapolitan street food featured in the episode.
Pizzeria La Notizia
Current status: Open
Location: Via Michelangelo da Caravaggio 53, Naples
Featured food: Neapolitan pizza
Booking: Available through the official website
After sampling Naples street food, Tucci meets master pizzaiolo Enzo Coccia of Pizzeria La Notizia. Coccia was the first pizza maker recognized by the Michelin Guide, but the pizzeria itself does not hold a Michelin star.
In the episode, Coccia takes Tucci beyond Naples to meet the producers behind two key pizza ingredients. They visit the Gustarosso cooperative near Sarno for San Marzano tomatoes and Il Casolare dairy in the province of Caserta to see how mozzarella di bufala is made. Coccia then uses these Campanian ingredients to prepare a classic Neapolitan pizza.
La Notizia has two locations on the same street. The original La Notizia 53, which opened in 1994, focuses on traditional Neapolitan pizza. La Notizia 94 offers more creative toppings and combinations. Both are outside the historic centre, so plan your route before visiting.
Chicù
Current status: Open
Location: Viale della Resistenza, Comparto 12, Scampia
Featured food: Neapolitan and Romani cuisine
Booking: Contact Chicù in advance, especially for dinner
Tucci travels beyond central Naples to visit Chicù, a restaurant and cultural space in Scampia. The neighbourhood is often associated with organized crime and the troubled history of its public housing projects, but Chicù shows another side of the community through food, education and cultural events.
Chicù is home to La Kumpania, a social enterprise that helps local Italian and Roma women turn their cooking skills into paid work. Its menu brings together Neapolitan cooking with Romani and Balkan dishes, reflecting the backgrounds and traditions of the women involved.
This is more than a place to eat. Chicù also hosts workshops, community programmes, artistic events and activities for families. It’s about a 15-minute walk from Piscinola-Scampia metro station, so allow extra travel time when adding it to your Naples itinerary.
Stanley Tucci restaurants near Naples
The episode continues beyond Naples to explore more of Campania’s regional cooking. Tucci travels to Ischia for a traditional inland dish, then visits Nerano on the Sorrentine Peninsula and Minori on the Amalfi Coast. These restaurants require more planning than the Naples stops, but you can include each in a longer Campania itinerary.
Trattoria Il Focolare
Current status: Open
Location: Via Cretajo al Crocefisso 13, Barano d’Ischia
Featured food: Coniglio all’ischitana
Booking: Advance reservations recommended
Ischia may be surrounded by the sea, but some of its most traditional dishes come from the island’s rural interior. Tucci discovers this side of Ischia at Trattoria Il Focolare, a family-run restaurant established by the D’Ambra family in 1991.
The restaurant is known for coniglio all’ischitana, or Ischia-style rabbit. The rabbit is slowly cooked in a terracotta pot with garlic, cherry tomatoes and Mediterranean herbs. Tucci joins the family for a generous meal that highlights Ischia’s farming traditions rather than its seafood.
Il Focolare is inland and cannot be reached on foot from the ferry terminals. You will need a bus, taxi or rental vehicle after arriving on Ischia. The restaurant is popular with both residents and visitors, so booking ahead is strongly recommended.
Lo Scoglio da Tommaso
Current status: Open
Location: Piazza delle Sirene 115, Marina del Cantone
Featured food: Spaghetti alla Nerano
Booking: Strongly recommended, especially in summer
Lo Scoglio sits directly over the water in Marina del Cantone, near the village of Nerano on the Sorrentine Peninsula. Founded by the De Simone family in 1958, the restaurant serves seafood and produce grown on the family’s nearby farms.
Tucci visits Lo Scoglio for spaghetti alla Nerano, a local pasta dish made with zucchini, cheese and basil. He and his wife tried to recreate it at home but couldn’t achieve the same flavour and texture. During the episode, Tucci learns that the zucchini must be fried before it is combined with the pasta.
Recipes vary across Nerano. Some use Provolone del Monaco, while Lo Scoglio reportedly uses a blend of Parmesan and pecorino. The result is a creamy sauce created from the cheese, zucchini and starchy pasta water, without adding cream.
Lo Scoglio is not a budget restaurant, and fresh fish may be priced by weight. Check prices before ordering. You can reach the restaurant by road, but the journey involves narrow, winding roads. In summer, many visitors arrive by boat from Sorrento, Positano or Capri.
Pasticceria Sal De Riso
Current status: Open
Location: Via Roma 80, Minori
Featured food: Delizia al limone
Booking: Not usually required for pastries, but expect queues
Tucci ends his Campania food tour in Minori, where he meets pastry chef Sal De Riso. The Amalfi Coast is known for the Limone Costa d’Amalfi IGP, an aromatic local lemon used in desserts, gelato and limoncello.
At the pasticceria, Tucci tries Sal De Riso’s version of delizia al limone. This dome-shaped dessert consists of soft sponge cake filled with lemon custard and covered in a cream flavoured with Amalfi Coast lemon peel. Although pastry chef Carmine Marzuillo created the original dessert in 1978, De Riso helped turn it into one of the coast’s best-known specialties.
I’ve visited the Minori pasticceria myself and can recommend stopping here. It offers much more than pastries, with gelato, coffee, cakes, savoury dishes and a restaurant and bistro menu. However, the delizia al limone remains the essential order for anyone following Tucci’s route. My other choice would be the lemon gelato.
The pasticceria is close to Minori’s seafront and is open daily. It can become very busy during the summer, so visit earlier in the day if you want to avoid the longest queues.
Final thoughts on the Stanley Tucci Naples restaurants
Following the Stanley Tucci Naples restaurants offers more than a list of famous places to eat. The episode connects Campania’s dishes with the people, ingredients and traditions behind them, from fried pizza in the Spanish Quarter to rabbit cooked in the hills of Ischia.
You can visit Pizzeria La Notizia and Chicù while staying in Naples. Pizza Fritta da Fernanda has closed, but Antica Pizza Fritta da Zia Esterina Sorbillo offers a convenient alternative. Il Focolare, Lo Scoglio and Pasticceria Sal De Riso require separate trips, so allow several days if you want to follow the complete route.
We checked restaurant details and operating status in August 2026. Opening hours and booking policies can change, so confirm them directly with each restaurant before visiting.
