"tim....." wrote:
[snip]

I've lived in Italy too, and, whilst my circle of associates was likely
to be smaller (and younger) than Steve's, I didn't actually know anyone
who made pizza at home. If you wanted a pizza you went to the pizzeria
at the end of the road (and, whichever road it was, they made so much
better pizza than pizzeria anywhere else in the world, IME). It was
cheap enough to do 4 times a week if you wanted - how many times a week do you need pizza?

Pretty fair summary, yes my friends are older (60s upwards for the most
part) they are also rural hence can't just pop around to a local shop. Even
so very few own a pizza oven.

So to me, Steve's comment can just as easily be interpreted to mean
"Italians don't make pizza at home".

In part and also that a pizza oven is a luxury item. Traditionally city
families would take their food Tia baker an use their oven for a fee. But
pizza is takeaway food and is bought as much as made. The ovens aren't
"dedicated pizza ovens" they are bread ovens. We have three, two in a state
of disrepair but our home is a large farmers house so it's the hub of a
hamlet and all the farm workers would bring their food up to the big house
to be cooked.

Rod doesn't seem to have a clue about how much wood is needed to fire an
oven, or how much time it takes. He also doesn't seem to know that most
homes in Italy have a 3kW supply. They can't run a pizza oven of the sort
sold at garden centres and ironmongers because to run the 3kw element they
would have to turn everything else off.

(BTW I've actually no idea what this "stone" is supposed to do, if that's relevant)

It's a bit of flim-flam. It is just an oven tray that needs more
pre-heating than a metal one.