On our Naples walk we plunge into the bustling market streets, which is where we spied this colorful meat stand adorned with signs made by the city’s last traditional sign painter. Shopkeepers, bakers, olive sorters and vendors are all part of the market’s warm community, into which we are so kindly welcomed.

Some people believe that a cup of coffee is the same everywhere. We like to think that they haven’t been to one of the Mexico cafés in Naples, where even a coffee novice can understand he has come face-to-face with a very special brew, one that took years to perfect. When you enter a Caffè Mexico – there are three in Naples – an extraordinary smell envelops you. It is the smell of history, one that often seeps into furniture and timeworn objects. The main source of this smell is coffee (the Passalacqua brand, named after the café’s founder), both from the grinder, operated by a dedicated member of staff, and also the retail counter, where coffee beans are constantly being scooped and weighed and packaged, releasing their aroma throughout the room.

With a gastronomic culture that dates back almost 3,000 years, it’s no wonder that tradition plays an important role in Neapolitan restaurants. Many of our favorite places in the city have been run by the same family, in the same spot, for four or more generations. In fact, we often view this doggedness as a quality guarantee of sorts. But that doesn’t automatically discount new entries to the dining scene. Even some of the most recent additions can still be steeped in tradition, like Januarius, a restaurant born under the star of San Gennaro (Saint Januarius), the patron saint of Naples – it has solid cultural, aesthetic and culinary roots despite only opening late last year.

Throughout Italy, Naples is known as the “city of coffee” – the Neapolitan caffè is synonymous with high-quality brew. And drinking coffee in the city is a true ritual, a complex set of unwritten norms, customs and ancient habits. We spotted some coffee paraphernalia, such as the ubiquitous moka pot, on our Naples culinary walk.

On a stormy night sometime in the mid-9th century, as the legend goes, a Greek pilgrim named Pontus sought refuge underneath a Roman aqueduct in Salerno, some 50 kilometers south of Naples along the Amalfi Coast. With rain pounding down on the town and debris flying everywhere, Pontus took a terrible blow to his arm and found himself gravely wounded. Just as he sought treatment for his wound, Pontus noticed that a fellow Italian traveler called Salernus was also wounded, but applying seemingly innovative dressings to his injury. Fighting back superstitions and embracing his medical curiosity, Pontus approached Salernus to inspect his bandaging technique. As Salernus explained his methods to the Greek, two additional travelers, Helinus, a Jew, and Abela, an Arab, passed under the same aqueducts.

There’s a famous Italian saying that goes, “Christmas with yours, Easter with whomever you want.” In Naples, this piece of advice has practically become law, meaning that the Christmas holidays are spent with family – no ifs, ands or buts about it. So on December 25, Neapolitans can be found at home, surrounded by relatives (which is not always pure holiday joy) and enjoying together the gastronomic delights of Neapolitan Christmas fare. Of course, there is constant debate over what should go on the holiday table. There are certain dishes that have long been linked to the Christian calendar in Italy.

Since mid-December of last year, it’s felt like Naples has been at the center of the world, at least gastronomically speaking. Most significantly, UNESCO added the Neapolitan art of pizza making to its list of “intangible cultural heritage.” It’s not merely recognition of Neapolitan pizza as a beloved dish, but also of the important ancient art that was developed in the city and passed down from generation to generation of pizzaioli. The Mediterranean diet also continues to dominate the news cycle. In fact, a department was created at the Città della Scienza (“City of Science”) museum in Naples specifically to study this diet. And many of the city’s restaurants are also, in a way, doing something similar: the focus has lately been on researching ancient gastronomic traditions and recreating them with only the best raw materials.

Elena Ferrante’s much-loved novel My Brilliant Friend and its sequels seduced the literary world. And now a new television adaption, which recently debuted on HBO, is bringing this coming-of-age story set in Naples to an even broader audience. Over the course of what many call the Neapolitan novels, the two main characters, friends Lila and Elena, traverse the city. We decided to follow in their (fictional) footsteps, albeit with a focus on all things food.

The team behind Salumeria Upnea, a modern trattoria cum exhibition space in Naples, is not exactly what you’d expect: Gennaro, Luigi, Stefano and Antonello, three pharmaceutical researchers and one lawyer, respectively, were deskbound at a pharmaceutical company not that long ago. Yet these four friends decided to risk everything for their two passions: photography and quality food. The first step in realizing their dream was founding a cultural association in an old building on Spaccanapoli, one of the three narrow streets that traverse the heart of the ancient city center. Here they held photography courses and photo exhibitions that invariably ended in long dinners with friends; after more exhibitions, and more dinners with friends, Gennaro’s cooking talents saw greater acclaim.

In the early 18th century, before there was the Spinning Jenny, the Cotton Gin and the steam engine, a new machine was making waves in Gragnano, the grain capital of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. It was the torchio, the pasta extruder. And it would radically and permanently change the diet of Italy. Just beyond Naples, the ancient Roman town of Gragnano, whose very name indicates an abundance of grain, was tentatively beginning to mechanize the production of dried pasta, theretofore a luxurious oddity throughout the Italian peninsula. Local entrepreneurs gradually capitalized on what their forbearers had known for several millennia – not only was Gragnano ideally situated due to its storied cultivation of durum wheat and semolina, but it also offered access to thirty water mills. Perhaps even more curiously Gragnano offered something very rare at the time: the perfect air for drying pasta.

There’s a saying in Naples: “Anything fried is good, even the soles of shoes.” So it’s no surprise that we stop for some fried goodies on our Naples culinary walk. Our favorites are the panzerotti, soft potato croquettes filled with salami and mozzarella, and the arancini, golden and crispy rice balls.

Take a small space in a strategic location, add two young and idealistic owners, and finish with traditional Neapolitan dishes made with the finest raw ingredients – this is Taverna a Santa Chiara’s recipe for success. Everything began with the passion of two young Neapolitans, Nives Monda and Potito Izzo, for specialty artisanal food products from the Campania region. These types of products are not necessarily hard to find – Campania is home to many excellent small producers. Yet high quality often comes at a high cost, especially when compared to mass industrial products sold through large distribution chains.

“His name was Mr. Antonio, and they called him the captain,” says 35-year-old Giusy Aiese, launching into the story of La Taverna del Buongustaio. “He was a wine producer from the province of Caserta, and he established a wine-making cellar here in the Fascist period, around 1930.” As we listen to Giusy recount the history of the tavern, we can’t help but think about hers: she comes from a family tree brimming with lovers of Neapolitan cuisine. Her 65-year-old father, Gaetano, a genius in the kitchen, has run La Taverna del Buongustaio since 1996, the year he bought the restaurant from Francesco de Micco, another excellent cook and, funnily enough, Gaetano’s wedding witness.

Throughout Italy, Naples is known as the “city of coffee” – the Neapolitan caffè is synonymous with high-quality brew. And within the city, there are a number of stories and legends that swirl around the black stuff. Coffee is far and away the most popular caffeinated drink in the city. Neapolitans are not tea drinkers. In fact, most see it as a kind of medicine, probably because when you’re sick to your stomach the doctor recommends eating white rice and drinking tea. But it’s not just about the coffee itself. In Naples, drinking coffee is a true ritual, a complex set of unwritten norms, customs and ancient habits.

We recently spoke to author Elizabeth Minchilli about her new book, “Eating My Way Through Italy” (St. Martin’s Griffin; May 2018). After a lifetime of living and eating in Rome, Minchilli is an expert on the city’s cuisine, as evidenced by her popular blog, her Eat Italy app and her book “Eating Rome: Living the Good Life in the Eternal City” (2015). In her most recent title she writes about the dishes, customs and recipes that she’s discovered during her travels across Italy. Rather than an encyclopedic guide to the country, the book is a spirited and intimate look into Minchilli’s own experiences and the meals that have led her off the beaten track.