NYCFoodSnob

Actually, I think Huitres is mistaken. Since Italy is surrounded by the sea and there's no shortage of sun, (like I said) Italians love their (sea)salt, and some well-known dining establishments have a reputation for using too much. This is particularly true in Venice. (What's too much when compared to the Adriatic?)

It sounds to me like RuthMc is very resourceful. Writing down the information is much smarter than trying to undertake a crash course in Italian pronunciation.

To secure the best written version of any prepared text, I would contact the Italian Government Tourist Board. (http://www.italiantourism.com/enit.html)
I'm sure you can find a sympathetic representative who will not only provide the correct wording to get your point across, you can also here what it sounds like in Italian.

You could also contact Parliamo Italiano and ask for their help. (http://www.parliamo.com/) Their staff is a dream come true. I think you and your husband would be far better served if you speak to an Italian directly. Good luck.

LoveItaly

Hi NYCFS. I do not like a lot of salt on my food (I do love seasalt but not to much) and my experiences have been that in Italy food is not oversalted as so much food is in the US.

But it is intersting how we all have different experiences and opinions.

In any case, I sure love the food in Italy.

massagediva

Hi, RuthMc
I have found the food in Italy, particularly Tuscany,to be quite salty at times.When you return,please let us know how it went ,as others are surely in the same boat. Buona fortuna.

RuthMc

Thanks for the continuing input. I've just returned from a weekend trip to Boston where I took a culinary tour of the Italian North End. The guide took us to different food establishments and talked about Italian cooking and some of the differences from Italian-American cooking. One thing she said is that when cooking pasta, you must add a lot of salt to the cooking water so that it tastes as salty as the sea. We don't do that at home, but if they do in Italy, it just means that we need to moderate our consumption of pasta. Good to know.

NYCFS, I may try contacting the organizations you suggested to see if I get the same translations I got here. While I studied Italian before our first trip on my own and spoke some in Italian, I don't want to try it for this issue. As so many others have found, the real problems arose when the Italian responded to me. I usually didn't have a clue as to what they were saying.

We leave next week and will certainly let everyone know how it all worked out. We won't be in Tuscany this trip, but in Rome, Sorrento and Puglia.

RuthMc

Well, we're back and I must say the low sodium issue worked out just fine. I had cards ready to give the waiter, but didn't really have to. It seemed sufficient to say, kind of in pigeon Italian, "e posible senza sale? La sale e male per" and point to the person. Every time we asked, the waiter seemed to understand and not be insulted. It helps that generally the green/mixed salads come without dressing so that you can do your own oil, vinegar & pepper without salt. And in some cases, the waiter had enough English ( a lot of English in many cases) and I had enough broken Italian to ask if a dish had a lot of salt and get a recommendation for one less salty. I didn't try for complete sentences, but just to string words together, like "molto sale?" while pointing to the menu. Not grammatically correct most likely, but it worked.

In fact, the saltiest meals we got were on SAS when I ordered low sodium for my husband--his was saltier than my regular meal. I think they provide low fat instead.

So thanks to everyone who helped out with this question. We had a fabulous trip with fabulous food and weather. I'll post a trip report later (not nearly as entertaining as SharonG's) but wanted to let anyone interested know how this worked out.

rex

Since you didn't mention it, one might be able to infer... but still I will ask - - did he have untoward effects while traveling? (regardless of how many actual milligrams of sodium found their way in to his diet...)

SharonG

Thanks for letting us know how things worked out. Looking forward to your report.

RuthMc

No untoward effects, thanks for asking. Ate some limited amount of food known to be salty but pumped a lot of water (and wine) into himself and maybe that helped.

LoveItaly

Hello RuthMc, I am so glad everything worked out so well for the two of you. I have some food allergies and have always had excellent help with my problem in restaurants in Italy. Out of all my trips I only had one slight problem, and that is because the chef decided to experiement with a pasta sauce when I was there and failed to inform the waiter. It sounds like you managed to comminicate just fine. Best wishes.