Marco Russo grew up in Naples, learning to make pizza in his grandmother Lucia’s kitchen. The flour-dusted countertops, the wood-fired oven that never seemed to cool, the way Nonna’s hands moved with decades of intuition — these became the foundations of everything Bella Vita would become.

After moving to Austin in 2008, Marco spent five years perfecting his craft before opening Bella Vita with his wife Sofia in 2013. Today, every pizza is made with Nonna Lucia’s original recipes and baked in a custom wood-fired oven imported from Naples.