Going To Italy Next Week...any Suggestions?

[bigapplekathleen]

Hi everyone,

I am going on a family trip to Italy next week. I am the only one of the five who is on a gluten-free diet. I was planning to just take a couple packs of ENERG granola bars and then live on fresh meat, veggies and fruit. Does anyone have any other thoughts? We will be in Venice for 2 days and then Florence for 5 days. I don't want to be difficult in restaurants, since we will have 3 kids with us, so any suggestions for specific restaurants in either city are much appreciated. (I have a restaurant card and I speak italian pretty well, so am not worried about being understood.)

Thanks again !

Kathleen in NY metro area

non-celiac gluten intolerant

multiple food allergies

[SofiEmiMom]

My husband was in Italy this past May (for a funeral unfortunately), but he checked out the gluten-free status of things since we will be traveling there with our children in a couple of years to visit...myself and my two girls are celiac. There is a fairly large selection of gluten-free foods in all of the Pharmacia's. My husband said that the pharmacists are extremely knowledgable as well. If you are celiac in Italy the govt pays for your gluten-free food, so you get a script and get the food at the pharmacy. It can be purchased off of the shelf though, but that's why it's in the pharmacy. As far as restuarants check out the Italian Celiac website. I'm guessing since you can speak Italian, you may be able to read it. If not let me know and I can translate some things for you to the best of my ability - still trying to learn:). The website is in all Italian. It's very helpful as it lists several celiac friendly restaurants by region:

Open Original Shared Link

Have a wonderful trip!

[celiac3270]

Open Original Shared Link

Choose your area from the above....there are over 400 restaurants in Italy that are "certified" with this program.

[bigapplekathleen]

thanks for the replies. I have loaded up on ENER-G granola bars (3 packs of 10!) just in case...

I will print out all the restaurants from both sites and will let everyone know the results in a couple weeks!

Ciao!

Kathleen

[Carriefaith]

I will print out all the restaurants from both sites and will let everyone know the results in a couple weeks!

That would be great!

Hope you have a fun trip.

[bigapplekathleen]

Hi everyone,

I just returned from my trip to ITALY and it was fabulous. A couple of things I learned:

AIR FRANCE has the most incredibly delicious gluten-free meals (except for the little tiny loaves of bread which are nearly inedible). Everyone around me was envious of my obviously 'first class meal' in coach! There was a little card at the bottom of my tray that had a complete nutrional breakdown for each item and for the total meal. WOW!

(On a short flight) CITY JET by AIR FRANCE brought me fruit trays from first class when they realized they didn't have a gluten-free snack. It was delicious.

DELTA served me a gluten-free dinner that made me HORRIBLY SICK. It was grilled chicken, rice, and many other things. Delicious, but very costly on my body. I had to stand for the entire flight and was in and out of the bathroom more than 15 times in the span of 4 hours. Then when they brought my gluten-free breakfast 5 hours later, it explained it all: there was Special K cereal (first ingredient, wheat) and several other gluten-containing items. I was too sick to eat at that point, anyway.

It is easy to get gluten-free processed foods - croissants, bread sticks, cake,cookies, etc (mostly by SCHAR) - in all pharmacies. The price is much lower than in the USA and it's free if you get a prescription from the hospital (which the pharmacist told me most people don't bother with, since the wait is very long).

In Florence, Italy, there are two restaurants owned by the same family, around the corner from each other. (I Quattro Amici & Il Portale Trattoria/Pizzeria) They are next to the train station - easily accesible! Both have EXTENSIVE (hard-cover, 10 page long) Gluten-Free menus. We ate at Il Portale. The crostini was delicious, vegetable soup was great, "penne salmone" was the BEST I HAD EVER HAD (incredible sauce!), but the gluten-free pizza was just so-so; the crust was too strong to cut. (no comparison with the delicious gluten-free pizza at Rissoteria in NY City) On top of that, it was perhaps the best red wine we had anywhere in Italy.

Most gelaterias can tell you exactly which flavors are gluten-free (usually only the fruit flavors, though I ate chocolate at one without asking and it was fine).

In Sienna, it was difficult to get gluten-free snacks or even salads. Even the pharmacies didn't stock much gluten-free food (except baby food jars). Luckily, I had granola bars and was able to buy fruit at markets.

I carried gluten-free granola bars with me at all times, since sometimes our family just grabbed sandwiches for lunch, and there was nothing for me.

I carried a gluten-free restaurant card that I copied out of a major gluten-free guide and read it or handed it to the waiter in every restaurant. It was very easy to eat everywhere. They all understood celiac, since it's very common there. I had no trouble with any meals (except for the DELTA experience). In fact, I thought I would lose weight while I was there, but I stayed exactly the same!

Thanks to the people who gave me all of the restaurant information.

Regards,

Kathleen

NY City area

Gluten-intolerant and multiple food allergies