By Mary Constantine of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Knoxville has had a love affair with pizza for years. The Pizza Palace on Magnolia Avenue has operated at the same location for more than 50 years. The Original Louis' Drive-in in Fountain City is another restaurant that's been a constant on the pizza scene, as has Naples Italian Restaurant on Kingston Pike, Stefano's Chicago Style Pizza on Cumberland Ave., Big Ed's Pizza on the outskirts of Knoxville in Oak Ridge and Mama Mia's in Kingston which has been open since 1971.

Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria in the Old City became so popular that a second location was created in Maryville, and the much-loved Tomato Head location on Market Square led to a second storefront on Kingston Pike.

Newer pizza places continue to dot the Knoxville scenery. There's Hard Knox Pizzeria in Western Plaza, Dazzo's Pizzeria on Gay Street, Little Nicky's New York Pizza in Solway, and more franchise pizza joints than one can accurately list.

So it should be no surprise that a study by SmartAsset.com has determined that Knoxville is the third-best city in America for pizza lovers.

Noting that it's a college town, the researchers wrote that "Knoxville can offer pizza lovers the 16th highest percentage of great pizza and the 14th lowest cost of living."

The report goes on to state that Knoxville has above average scores in all categories analyzed, which includes the availability of pizza locations per every 10,000 residents and how good the average pizza was rated by Yelp.com users. South Bend, Indiana, took first place. Des Moines, Iowa, took second. Chattanooga rated eighth.

For more information on this study visit www.smartasset.com.