Coincidence or fashion, the pizza district is taking shape in Bologna, all concentrated within a few meters: in the heart of the historic centre, along Via Oberdan, two new pizzerias have opened, alongside consolidated names in the restaurant business under the Two Towers. You are spoiled for choice because the quality is very high everywhere, the watchword is Neapolitan pizza. The latest addition is Pizzium, which in Bologna, after Milan, Turin, Rome and many other cities, opens its seventeenth restaurant in Italy in just under three years, with 300 employees. Alongside the classics (Margherita, Napoli, Bufalina), the restaurant offers regional pizzas, with typical products from every Italian territory.
The base is Neapolitan, 24 hours of leavening with a high and soft crust, but then the seasoning varies from place to place. In Bologna, it could only be mortadella (branded as Villani) combined with fior di latte from Agerola and Apulian stracciatella. The result is very tasty. Sicily? With tuna fillets from Cetara; the Veneto? With red radicchio cream; Liguria? With basil pesto. “I like the idea of creating a pizza pole here – explains Giovanni Arbellini, master pizza maker from Acerra, one of the founding members of Pizzium –: it's easier to work, it means that there is a lot of demand, there is space for everyone". Instead, it arrives directly from Forcella, Naples By Michele, which has settled in Piazza San Martino, where crowds of people queue up systematically.
In the fifth generation of the Condurro family, a name that is a brand all over the world (they have also opened in Barcelona, Los Angeles, Dubai, Tokyo), here we go with the very classics: Margherita, Marinara, Napoletana. Very thin dough, very large enough to come out of the plate, not very thick crust. The Cossack is also on the menu under the Two Towers: tomato, pecorino dop, basil, oil. For those with a sweet tooth there is fried pizza: Napoli salami, fior di latte from Agerola, sheep's milk ricotta, pecorino dop, pepper, oil. Both Pizzium and Da Michele do not take reservations: the only way is to get in line.
