One of the greatest things about Italy, besides the food and wine, is the availability of trains. I hate driving where I can read the signs, so I really hate driving where I can’t. Luckily, the trains are easy and generally cheaper than renting a car.
Thanks to the availability of trains, we were able to take a day trip to Caserta from Naples, about 25 miles away. Our main goal was to eat at I Masanielli Francesco Martucci, the pizza place that won top pizza in the world. After confirming that we could take the train there, we made a reservation for lunch, which is only on Thursday through Saturday.
We left Naples early so we could go to Reggia di Caserta before our reservation. It’s a royal palace with one of the most expansive and impressive gardens I’ve ever seen (and yes, I’ve been to Versailles). Not only is it larger than Versailles, it’s the largest palace in the world!
The palace is so large that the walk from the street to the doors seems to take forever. We didn’t have time to see the royal apartments and the gardens, so we opted for the garden ticket. Despite having almost three hours, it wasn’t nearly enough time!
Pro tip: Book your ticket ahead of time, as they are a timed entrance
The gardens are so vast, it’s impossible to describe or even capture in photos. A fountain runs down the center of the 300 acres, which is fed by a waterfall! We walked the entire length of the fountain, but you can book a private golf cart tour or take a small bus for a fee. The garden was so green and lush, and there were tons of birds in the trees and fish in the fountains, giving us plenty to look at.
Every step closer to the end got prettier and prettier. Despite being a long, straight walk along the fountain, it never got old. In fact, I would have loved to have the whole day just in the gardens.
When we finally got to the end, there was a show being filmed. We weren’t allowed to leave to start the walk back, since they were using a drone to film the whole area. We were nervous that we would miss our lunch reservation, but we were finally allowed to head back. We ended up paying for the shuttle, since we were low on time and I was anxious about lunch.
We walked over to I Masanielli Francesco Martucci and made it right before our reservation, which was when they opened. There was already a line when we got to the very nondescript restaurant in the Italian equivalent of a strip mall.
We were starving after our long trek at the palace so we ordered pizzas as soon as we were seated. I had the futuro di marinara. It had cream of roasted tomatoes, olives of Caiazzo, anchovies of Trapani, pesto of wild garlic, capers of Salina, oregano of Monti Lattar and it was so full of flavor. This pizza is one of their ‘pizza a tres temperatura,’ pizza at three temperatures. The dough was fried first then finished in the oven. It resulted in the fluffiest yet crispiest crust I’ve ever had. It was my fourth favorite pizza of the entire eight month trip.
The Husband got the nero di corbara, which was corbarino tomato in water and salt, sausage with fennel; after cooking: smoked caciocavallo, EVO oil Fontana Lupo. His was a more traditional pizza al forno (in the oven) but it was just as good. The dough was so fantastic.
For dessert, we got the sottobosco, which was hazelnut flour, ice cream, dark chocolate 60%, hazelnut praline, toasted hazelnuts with priest chestnuts, blueberries, red fruits, milk chocolate foam, porcini powder, and licorice powder. It was super unique and so good.
The restaurant was beautiful, clean and modern, and I loved being able to see in the kitchen from our table. We also walked around and checked out the numerous, and prestigious, awards they’ve won.
A day trip to Caserta is absolutely worth doing when visiting Naples. We were only gone about six hours, but we could have spent all day there.
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