The orgin of the Italian Pizza

The origin of Italian pizza can be traced in ancient Greece to a flatbread called plakous which was flavored with toppings like herbs, onion, and garlic 7,000 years ago.

In the 6th century BC, the soldiers of Persian King Darius I armies baked flatbreads with cheese and dates on top of their battle shields.

The word pizza was first documented in AD 997 in Gaeta and successively in different parts of Central and Southern Italy. The precursor of pizza was probably the focaccia, a flatbread known to the Romans as panis focacius, to which toppings were then added.

Modern pizza developed in Naples, when tomato was added to the focaccia in the late 18th century. However, pizza was mainly eaten in the country of Italy and by emigrants from there. This changed after World War II when Allied troops stationed in Italy came to enjoy pizza along with other Italian foods. Image: a fresco of a flatbread found from Pompeii.