travelling to Italy with celiac disease
 

interested in anyone who has travelled to Italy with celiac disease and has been able to keep a gluten free diet while eating out at restaurants

No personal experience myself, but my dad has celiac disease so I know how important this question is to you. I think with careful ordering, you'll have no trouble with dinner. Breakfast, however, and to some degree lunch, might be more of a problem.

Almost every restaurant displays their menu outside, so you can decide whether there are appropriate selections before you commit to the restaurant.

Hotel breakfast buffets are heavy toward grains and bread, but there are usually fruit, cheese and sometimes hard-boiled eggs offered. I've never gone to a restaurant for breakfast, but perhaps you might find more options for a good breakfast at a restaurant. Italians are not big on breakfast, though, so even this plan might be difficult in a small town.

Lunch will be a bit easier. Just look for a restaurant, not a pizzeria, with fruit, vegetable and meat/fish dishes.

Carry a translation of your dietary restrictions with you. A friend of mine has a gluten free diet, and she always travels to Europe with a translated instruction sheet that the waiters or cooks can read. It lists the ingredients that she is allergic to, and she has managed to stay pretty healthy on her trips. Good luck!

I'm a coeliac(that's how we spell it in the UK) and I went to Italy last year. I took some rice cakes with me, so that I could have something for breakfast - the hotel where we stayed provided a very good buffet with cheese, fruit and cereals. As the previous poster said, carry an information sheet (Coeliac UK produces them in several European languages) and avoid pizzarias at lunchtime! In most restaurants you'll find plenty you can eat - remember polenta is gluten free, and a good alternative to pasta. Snacking on the move is very frustrating - pizza and bread everywhere! Had a great time nevertheless.

In restaurants you can ask for antipasti di montagna (selection of salami, prosciutto and bresaola), antipasto di versure (grilled zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes but remember to ask them without the breadcrub version, just with oil and garlic), or antipasto di mare (seafruit with olive oil). There are salad selections too, and as for desserts there is the always good "macedonia" (fresh fruit cut in small pieces and served with lemon and sugar yummy). In some places you can also find some "yogurteria" where they sell large bowls of yogurt with a large choice of add ons like fruit, chocolate chips or honey), there is one in Via Nazionale near the Nazionale Theatre if I remember well. I agree on the translated paper that you are a celiac (something like: SONO CELIACO E QUINDI SONO INTOLLERANTE AL GLUTINE CONTENUTO NELLA PASTA, PANE, RISO E TUTTI I LORO DERIVATI).

OOOPS, sorry, I have written wrongly: antipasti di VERDURE, not versure! typing fast and poorly... :(

Framie, so far you've been given very good advice. I do think the biggest challenge, as an early poster pointed out, will be breakfast. Very often, hotels and restaurants will also offer yogurt for this meal. However, there are many fresh fruits and vegetables in the Italian diet, as well as an assortment of grilled meats.

Buon Viaggio,
BC