Pizza …. a bit of social distancing and a busy mid-day

Now La Piedigrotta is tucked away on a side street behind a very fashionable parade of shops, which is why I suppose I have never come across it.

And that is a shame because the owners are Neapolitan, and as everyone knows Naples is the home of pizza.

We had been taken there by Johnny who is a regular customer, and we weren’t disappointed.

The sun was shining, but a combination of social distancing and its reputation meant there was nowhere to sit outside, which meant after a short wait we were inside.

Not that I was over bothered, given that we were close to the pizza oven and in the short time before our order arrived I had plenty of time to observe the chef at work.

Here like everywhere in Varese, Covid has had an impact.  

There were hand sanitizers in abundance, some customers continued to wear their masks at the table, and due consideration was given to spacing us all out.

But it was the outside where it all seemed to have made its impact.

Looking at old pictures of the restaurant, the tables were laid out in two straight rows facing the pizzeria, but no more.   

Now there are little pockets spread out all along the Via Gian Domenico Romagnosi, making the place less a restaurant and more a long-distance eating place.

Still the pizza was all it should have been, the wine was cool, and the rum baba perfect, although I haven’t quite got used to the current practice of bringing the tiramisu in jam jars.

Location; Varese

Pictures; La Piedigrotta, and the Via Gian Domenico Romagnosi, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson