Hi All!

I'm traveling to Italy for the month of July! Cities include: Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Amalfi, Venice, Pisa, Florence and Cinque Terre. I've found a website listing restaurants but I'd love some personal advice from people who have eaten in any of these restaurants listed (since they are listed in Italian!). We are also on a budget so we are looking for more reasonable choices! I plan on bringing the "dining card" with me.

Thanks,

Renee

Let's see...I went to Rome, Venice, and Florence in March of this year and had a few problems. Everyone said people in Italy are well aware of celiac disease and will know what you're talking about when you explain it to them (or hand them your translation card...definitely have it with you at all times), but I went to one place where the server was a complete jerk and started yelling. Of course, that can't be the norm, but it was right in tourist central...down a little street in the Piazza that the Pantheon is located in. At any rate, he did find some food I coud eat and it was fabulous...of course, a jug of wine, lemon sorbet with limoncello AND vodka, and steak would be good anywhere...lovely diet! So that ended up not being so bad, as the server came back to apologize after my friend and I were both near tears.

Everywhere else I ate, I pretty much ordered steak. Fish is most likely okay, but most of the servers will be helpful in Rome anyway. I was glutened after eating sausages at a tiny restaurant...which was my own fault, but it certainly didn't look as if it contained breadcrumbs! Sausage...probably not a good plan.

In Venice, I was only there for 4 hours as it was pouring, hailing, and the wind was so strong it broke our umbrellas. I bought a couple pieces of fruit from a street vendor there.

Florence is easy as they are known for their steak. I had some rosemary steak on a bed of arugula...yum.

Of course, you'll still want to make sure that the steaks don't have sauces or anything. And if you're vegetarian, I can't really help you at all! Sorry.

Have fun in Italy and enjoy the Limoncello, it's gluten-free. Also, in the Travelling section of the forum, you'll find tons more info on traveling to Italy.

-Sally

A couple days ago I ran into an article by a celiac about traveling in Italy.
It's @ http://www.celiactravel.com/index.html

Good luck there - wish it was ME going!