Where did pizza come from?
Modern pizza comes from Naples, Italy, where flatbreads topped with tomato became popular street food in the 1700s and 1800s. Flatbreads themselves are ancient.
People around the Mediterranean ate flat breads with toppings for thousands of years, including the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. The pizza we know today took shape in Naples after tomatoes arrived from the Americas. Poor workers in the busy port city bought cheap slices from street vendors and bakeries.
A popular story says that in 1889 a Naples pizza maker named Raffaele Esposito made a pizza for Queen Margherita of Savoy, topped with tomato, mozzarella and basil to match the colors of the Italian flag. Historians debate the details, but the Margherita became one of the world's most famous pizzas.
How pizza went global
Italian immigrants brought pizza to the United States in the late 1800s. Lombardi's in New York is often called the first licensed pizzeria in America. Pizza became a worldwide favorite after World War II, and in 2017 UNESCO recognized the art of the Neapolitan pizza maker as part of humanity's cultural heritage.
Did You Know?
The most popular pizza topping in the United States is pepperoni. In Naples, the two classic pizzas are still the Margherita and the Marinara, which has tomato, garlic, oregano and olive oil but no cheese.