«My wife was giving birth, and I said to her: are you in labor for three hours? Then I can go to watch the match…”. Alfonso Aimone, founder and owner of the Pizzeria Pulcinella (now closed), always did cabaret with his most loyal customers, and told stories that were perhaps halfway between reality and fantasy, but which always served to underline his love for football. And his wife Anna was laughing too.
Napoli fan but also Como fan
Alfonso in livery in his restaurant in via Carso
He was a huge Napoli fan, but little by little he became a Como fan. Of Como and the city of Como. So much so that, and this is the news that has only just leaked out, when he passed away (a couple of months ago) he wanted to have his ashes spread, not at the San Paolo in Naples and on Vesuvius, but on Lake Como. The city that had adopted him and where he had become a character. Chef in San Giovanni near Naples, then in Germany, finally owner of Gorgone in Lurate, at a certain point he decided that his calling was to make pizzas. And so he opened the “Pulcinella” in 1984, in via Rienza. It quickly became one of those cult places, where eating pizza became something else, a ritual, also because his place stayed up late. And so, as happened in the Blue Grotto, Benito or Scugnizzo, here too those who were late ended up feeding themselves. As well as the journalists of La Provincia. And Alfonso talked about Maradona and Napoli.
A special pizza…
And he served that special pizza, with a special dough (one of the first to make Neapolitan dough, with soft pizza and a high crust) and in a particular shape, the “chopping board” which was brought to the table divided into parts of different flavors chosen by the customer. A formula that favored conviviality. Maybe this is why, at a certain point, groups of footballers from Como began to arrive: in the mid-nineties, and then above all in the new headquarters in via Carso, a much larger and more spacious place where there was never a shortage of match commentary on TV.
Alfonso (who had been a friend of Pino Daniele), fresh from a liver transplant in 2002, handed over the business to his children after a few years, but still remained in the business. Then he got sick and died in a support facility. The sons, Chicco and Nello, in turn closed the business to dedicate themselves to caring for their father. Now they work as employees in two different pizzerias. Bringing the art of his father, that of Neapolitan pizza and many cheerful evenings.
