Nov. 1 is National Calzone Day — a day devoted to giving calzones all the attention and glory that they deserve. Calzones may be less commercialized than pizza, but they’re so much better in every single way. Here are the reasons why calzones are much better than pizzas.

They’re less messy.

Pizza can be so messy when eating, especially if there are a lot of toppings. You take that first bite, and all the toppings roll off. After you finish your pizza, you’re left with grease and marinara sauce all over your fingers and around your mouth. Calzones are different — they’re a classier dish. Each bite is a perfect combination of bread, sauce, cheese and other toppings. Especially if you’re eating in public, you don’t want the humiliating experience of eating messily and spilling all of your food.

There’s more freedom with diverse dipping sauces.

Sometimes you can get sick of the same old pizza sauce. Instead, calzones allow you to dip your cheesy bite into whatever sauce you want, as they’re usually accompanied by extremely diverse dipping sauces. Not only do you have more dipping sauce options, but the process of dipping the food into the sauce is also easier. With pizza, you have to make sure your toppings don’t fall off while you’re dipping, however, you don’t have to worry about that with calzones.

The structure of calzones allows room for more stuffings and toppings.

Because the bread acts as a pocket for stuffings and toppings, you can fit so much more goodness into the dish. Unlike pizza, in which toppings are literally toppings, you can stuff all that and even more into a beautifully baked calzone. More stuffing equals more delicious goodness for calzones. 

Calzones hold their ingredients and keep them warm for a longer time.

As mentioned, because of the way calzones are structured, the toppings and stuffings are enclosed by the crust. This allows the stuffing to stay warm longer, making it way more delicious. Pizzas get cold, and the cheese hardens within 15 minutes. If you’re ordering takeout, calzones will still be warm and delicious when you get home, unlike pizza.

Pizzas are basic.

There are hundreds of pizza jokes and memes, but have you heard of a single calzone joke? Exactly. Go ahead and choose pizza over calzones if you want to be basic. Just know that if you decide to do that, you’re missing out on the gloriousness of calzones. 

These are only a few of the reasons why calzones are better than pizzas. We should all celebrate National Calzone Day by stepping away from pizza for just one day and simply enjoy calzones instead. Who knows, you might end up becoming a calzone lover!