The panzerotto is a small fried turnover from Puglia, born of cucina povera, the resourceful cooking of southern Italy. Italy Magazine claims that the panzerotto began as a way to use up leftover bread dough, stuffed with tomato and mozzarella, folded into a half-moon, and fried until golden. Its name comes from “panza,” dialect for belly, after the way the dough swells in the hot oil.

Pinsa is a Roman specialty known for its hand-stretched oval shape and an unusually light, crisp-yet-airy crust. According to Turismo Roma, it is made from a blend of wheat, rice, and soy flours with very high hydration and a long rise of up to 72 hours, which is what makes it so easy to digest. Though often associated with ancient Rome, the modern version was developed by Roman entrepreneur Corrado Di Marco in 2001 and has since spread well beyond the city.

In Naples, the classic pie becomes street food when it is folded into quarters and eaten by hand, a style known as pizza a portafoglio, or “wallet pizza.” Gambero Rosso says that it is smaller and thinner than a plated pizza, served piping hot in paper for just a couple of euros. The same source notes Bill Clinton was famously photographed enjoying one in 1994.

Pizza bianca is the Roman “white pizza,” a focaccia-like flatbread dressed with little more than olive oil, salt, and sometimes rosemary, with no tomato sauce at all. It is said to have started as the scrap of dough bakers used to test their oven’s heat before baking bread. Romans often split it open and fill it with mortadella.

Pizza fritta is fried rather than baked, and it carries one of the most moving backstories in Neapolitan food. According to La Cucina Italiana, it rose to prominence after World War II, when bombing had destroyed many wood-fired ovens and ingredients were scarce, so cooks fried dough instead. Often filled with ricotta and pork cracklings, it was famously immortalized by Sophia Loren in the 1954 film L’Oro di Napoli.

The pizza of Naples is the one most people picture: a soft, pillowy base with a puffed, lightly charred rim. Its most famous version, the Margherita, is popularly traced to 1889, when, per Atlas Obscura, pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito is said to have made it for Queen Margherita with tomato, mozzarella, and basil echoing the Italian flag. In 2017, UNESCO recognized the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo itself as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Pizza Spontini is Milan’s take on pizza, a thick slice with a soft top and a surprisingly crisp, oil-fried base, served as pizza al trancio. It takes its name from the Milanese pizzeria that popularized the style starting in 1953, building its reputation around an almost unchanged margherita recipe. Scalo Milano states that its origins trace back to the Sicilian sfincione, and it has since become a true Milanese institution.

If Naples is soft and chewy, the round Roman pizza is its opposite: thin, flat, and shatteringly crisp. According to La Cucina Italiana, Romans call it “bassa e scrocchiarella,” meaning low and crunchy, and it is rolled out with a rolling pin before a fast, very hot bake. Lightly topped so it stays crisp to the center, it is the cracker-thin counterpoint to its Neapolitan rival.

Pizza al taglio, or “pizza by the cut,” is Rome’s rectangular street pizza, baked in large pans and sold by weight rather than as whole pies. This style pizza yields an airy high-hydration dough and focaccia-like crumb with a crisp bottom. Customers often fold in half to eat on-the-go.

Pizzette are miniature pizzas, only a few bites each, and they are a fixture of Italian snacking culture rather than a sit-down meal. As Tasting Table explains, they are commonly served during aperitivo, the Italian happy hour, and sold by weight in bakeries across cities like Rome. Topped simply with sauce and cheese, they are the easygoing, shareable cousin of the full pie.

Sfincione is the original Sicilian pizza, a thick, spongy rectangle from the Palermo area whose name means “thick sponge.” According to La Cucina Italiana, it traces back to convent kitchens before becoming a Palermo street food, topped with tomato, onions, anchovies, breadcrumbs, and a strong local cheese rather than mozzarella. It remains a beloved fixture of Sicilian holiday tables.

The calzone is essentially a pizza folded in half before baking, and it was born in 18th-century Naples as a portable meal for workers who needed something to eat on the move. Tasting Table shares that its name, “Calzone,” translates roughly to “trouser leg,” a nod to its grab-and-go design. The classic Neapolitan filling pairs ricotta and mozzarella inside a sealed dough pocket.