Vegetarian in Italy?
 

Heading back for my second trip to Italy - did ok finding veggie friendly food last time but was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or warnings. I'm learning how to make my veggieness (my word) known in Italian and plan on also carrying a card stating my food "issues". Found the U.K. and Ireland to be very understanding and accommodating of vegetarians. What's the take in Italy? Didn't really ask last time. Thanks!

Increasingly young people in Italy are interested in being vegetarians, and historically the common food has always been vegetarian. But in tourist areas, most tourists want meat, so the restaurant menus are geared toward that appetite. However, if you do a little research, you can discover the underlying cuisine and eat very well.

One summer dish you will not want to miss in Lucca is a cold salad made of the grain of farro -- which is rather like spelt -- and it is a specialty of the region. Unfortunately Lucca otherwise has a very meaty cuisine (one reason I don't care to base there), but many of its pastas are eggy, and in summer you can usually find lighter vegetable and herb dressings for them. If you see the pasta "testaroli" on the menu, this is a marvelous pasta made like a crepe and then cut up into squares that is classically served with a pesto (pounded herb) dressing.

Should you end up going to San Gimignano or that area for hilltown explorations, be aware that saffron is one of the most important products of the immediate area. So you can get fantastic pastas, risottos -- even ice creams -- made with saffron, and they can be delicious.

Along le Cinque Terre (where you seem to have already been), vegetarian cuisine is easily had, especially if you also take a look inside bakeries for homemade pies ("torta") made with vegetables like chard (bietole) or artichoke (carciofi) or pumpikin ("zucca") or more likely zucchini in summer. You should also keep your eye out for "farinata", the fantastic chickpea flat-torte that usually is made is winter, but you might find it as a specialty of some bakeries. Vegetables stuffed with eggs and cheese and herbs ("ripieni") are a staple, even in restaurants. And of course beautiful green pasta "pesto" and Liguria's lively "pansoit con noci" -- vegetable ravioli sauced with pounded walnuts and a bit of milk.

For Sorrento, pizza -- classically vegetarian -- is not to be missed, along with all kind of salads using mozzerella. But there are also rich soups and pasta made with chickpeas ("ceci") and even more lovely, pastas dressed in lemon sauces made with Sorrentino lemons, among the most flavorful in the world.

In Venice, where most menus have fish or just plainly bad tourist food, you can track down some nice risotto, but you might have even more variety if you try bar snacks, which are a great Venetian tradition:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/201...s-cicheti-wine

There is a well regarded moderately priced, mainly vegetarian restaurant in Venice called La Zucca. You might want to track it down.


Buon appetito!

Sorry for my typo: Liguria's ravioli with walnut sauce is "pansoti con noci"

Thank you zeppole - you see, we can play nice here :o) I appreciate your advice. We fell in love with pesto while in Liguria - I had never seen green beans and potatoes in a pesto dish. Pizza was always safe last time because I could see the toppings. I did find the food in Venice a bit disappointing - any suggestions there would be appreciated. I hear bar food is good there but may not be very veggie friendly.
Where exactly do you live in Liguria? We loved Vernazza even though it was filled with tourists by day - it was so nice in the evening. My son and I swam in the bay everyday and loved the little gelato shop.
Thanks again and please forgive my bluntness in the itinerary posting.

oops - forgot to thank you for the La Zucca recommend - I'll check it out.

Somehow while in Liguria, we missed out on farinata - what can you tell me about it? Any special way it's eaten or places to get it? Hope you're not too mad at me zeppole - I'd love to hear more about "not to be missed" foods. Food and friendly people are half the reason we are returning to Italy.

I'm not mad at you senorarroz! I never looked back at the other thread after my last post, so if you were blunt, I didn't see it. To me, travel recommendations are like movie recommendations. It think it's better to find people who share your taste to give you their tips, rather than people who flock to movies that don't much interest you -- unless of course you feel you need to see all the Oscar winners. Basically what you were getting in that other thread was not advice from people who really like le Cinque Terre or Lucca, but people who wanted to steer you to the picturesque places they always evangelize about . That's why I said get a guidebook if you want to know which pictures win the Oscars in Italy. You may end up liking climbing hilltowns in summer in hot Tuscany, but if you haven't booked your tickets, I''ll once again recommend that you consider extending your time in destinations that combine mountains and water -- either Liguria, the Sorrentine peninsula and Switzerland for its lakes (or even Italy for its lakes and mountains, especially Lago di Como. They are cooler places, with plenty of Oscar-winning beauty.

Are you traveling with a child? If so, your picks of Pisa, Lucca and Pompeii make sense (although do carry lots and LOTS of water). I do question the Uffizi and so many art sites in Rome, unless your child has already given you lots of signs that's enjoyable.

On to food and friendly people:

Probably the single best place to eat farinata in Liguria is the pretty town of Chiavari, about 40 minutes away from le Cinque Terre by train. The restaurant you want is called Luchin, and it is closed Sundays. Just do a simple google search for"luchin chiavari" and you'll get a website and a map. The farinata is wood-oven baked, so you want to go fairly early to get a table OUTSIDE in the summer (be there by noon for lunch or 7pm for dinner). Chiavari is charming town with lots of porticoes, which makes it a nice shady place to stroll during the cocktail hour. There is a historic caffe in town called Caffe Defilla that serves what I think is the best "shakerato" I've thus far tasted in italy, but it also has great cocktails and gelati.

If Chiavari is too far to go, I have heard that La Pia Centanaria in La Spezia is also a great-maker of farinata. It's open from 8am to 10pm except Sunday, at is located at the via Magenta 12.

It maybe that someone in le Cinque Terre (most likely Levanto) makes farinata. Ask wherever you stay. In general, you should look at the display cases in bakeries because they often serve interesting and cheap lunch pies -- ancestrally related to greek spinach pies -- and they are all vegetarian.

In addition to pesto, Ligurians claim to have invented ravioli, and they most often eat it with vegetarian sauces. Stuffed little pastas often go by other names in Liguria -- like "pansoti" or "caramelle" -- but if you like ravioli filled with herbs, ricotta and eggs, they can be nice. Ask the waiter if they have a ravioli. (Also, if you haven't tried "lasagna al pesto" and see it on a menu, I think it is the nicest way to eat pesto.

If you are not going to be in Venice long, you should probably head straight to La Zucca and if you like it, just keep eating there! You are not going to exhaust the menu. (For cheaper meals, go for pizza.) You are right that bar food can run in the direction of fish and cured meats, so there are few good answers beyond La Zucca.

When I am in Tuscany, I don't hesitate to order plain beans "fagioli" when I see them on the menu, often listed as a "contorni". When Tuscan beans are dressed with the local olive oil (and the Lucchese make great olive oil), and some salt and pepper, they can be really very good. In summertime, Tuscans also eat cold bread salads, "panzanella," which can be delicious and filled with a variety of veg for crunch and moisture. Tuscans also grow very lovely bell peppers, red and yellow, which they call "peperoni" -- so if you see it on the menu, go for it. It's not salami. They serve them grilled, or preserved in oil, or just diced and tossed with pasta. Very nice.

Cheese is very good in many parts of Tuscany, and many cheeses are on menus as antipasta in puff pastries, baked or fried, or even grilled in slabs (they are excellent). But otherwise, it is very hard to get away from the very meaty cuisine of Tuscany, and pizza there is usually a flop (as it is in Liguria, but the menu is so much more varied in Liguria).

In and around Sorrento, fresh fruits and vegetables are so abundant and tasty, and pizza is such an art, I think you can just tell people you are a vegetarian and get spectacular food. Especially nice in that area and also in Rome is all the fresh grilled vegetables that get served up as a buffet. You should look for restaurants with big antipasti displays of grilled veggies to go with your mozzerrella and pizza. Unfortunately, you are out of season for artichokes but you can get stuffied fried zucchini flowers (make sure they don't have anchovies in them, just cheese) and you should also look for pizza bianca in Rome, a foccacia-like mattress of bread, topped with vegetables or whatever you like.

Not far from the Villa Borghese (or even from the Vatican Museums if you are willing to walk) is a very good Roman vegetarian restaurant called Margutta. It's located on the via Margutta and easy to find. It has one of Rome's best self-serve buffet lunches for 15 euro. You might want to check it out with a simple google search.

I live about an hour or so north of le Cinque Terre, near the Monte Portofino, If you enjoy boat rides, hikes and Ligurian food, you can give it a go sometime. It's much less crowded than le Cinque Terre, and has many more great restaurants, bakeries and gelaterie. Also, if your child likes Italy and Italian food, consider for some future trip heading to Torino, with all its quirky, fun pleasures, food and otherwise, plus easy access to the alps. Other great destinations for kids I think are Mantova, Verona and Lago di Garda.

Have a great time wherever you go this trip!

It is very easy for vegetarians to eat in Italy. Most antipasti dishes are vegetables and many restaurants have antipasti buffets. Many pasta and risotto dishes are also vegetarian. The "secondi piatti" are fish or meat - just skips this course.

The only requirement: You should make yourself familiar with the Italian names of the pasta and risotto dishes and especially make a list of those which are vegetarian. I think there are special dictionaries for foodies available.

BTW, vegetarian means "il vegetariano" (if male) and "la vegetariana" (if female).

I have seen others on this board recommend listings on www.happycow.com. The Italy page lists a number of restaurants and a few Italian phrases related to being vegetarian which might be helpful.

Just adding another post to say you will have no trouble. DW is vegetarian and there was always a good choice of suitable dishes in every restaurant we tried. I ate veggie in several restaurants just because her dishes looked so good.

Thank you for all the wonderful responses - I am especially interested in trying the lasagna al pesto zeppole mentioned. I am not travelling with my son this time - he is grown and married - I am looking forward to taking my grandson to Italy but that will have to wait - he's only a year old. I forgot about happycow - love that site - just forget it's international. Pizza will continue to be my go to in a pinch. I love how it changes the farther you go south. Pizza in Napoli is going to be like a pilgrimage for me. It was so hard to eat American pizza when we returned last time. And of course gelato - we joke that gelato is really the reason we are returning. We ate gelato everyday last trip and still managed to lose weight on the trip - who knew how much we were walking.
Zeppole - it's funny you mentioned the "enjoyment" of taking children to museums. My son was a teenager last time we were in Italy. Everytime we came to a new town, he would ask, "are there any museums in this town?" I think that is why he loved the Cinque Terra so much - swimming, hiking and eating were right up his alley.
Any favorite flavors of gelato? Maybe I'll start a new post for that one - thanks again everyone!

I eat fish when I am close to the sea, but I prefer to eat vegetarian most of the time. The thing I have found quite useful in my travels is to read good cookbooks--those that give information about the region and its specialties, especially seasonal items. That way, you know what to look for, rather than stressing over what to avoid.

I'll agree that Venice will be your most challenging location, but I think you'll have an easy time finding vegetarian meals there, too, especially if you choose from the antipasti and primi portions of the menu. We eat meat, but not much, and as our son (who did not go with us on our last Italian trip) is now vegetarian, I've become much more conscious of food offerings. We all agree that Italy is probably the easiest European country to eat vegetarian. (Caveat: No, I have not been to all European countries.)

We would often see meatless dishes listed as secondi; it's just that they're not specifically "branded" as vegetarian. Polenta with cheese, usually gorgonzola, I saw (and ate) in Tuscany and in Rome. You might also see polenta with other meatless ingredients, such as mushrooms. Cheese plates were sometimes listed as secondi. Also, I saw scamorza listed as a secondi - that's a mild cow's-milk cheese that is commonly served grilled (scamorza ai ferri).

To test my advice, I looked at the online menus for two places in Rome - Il Drappo, a very nice Sardinian place that's known for its seafood. In addition to the meatless antipasti, and primi, the secondi include stuffed sweet peppers with grilled artichoke (peperoni ripieni di carciofi al forno) and mixed Sardinian cheeses (misto di formaggi sardi). On Armando al Pantheon's menu (I've never eaten there, but I know it's popular), there's a separate vegetarian menu. But on the regular menu, in addition to meatless antipasti, primi and contorni, the secondi include polenta with all sorts of toppings, including truffles, and farro meatballs (or whatever you call balls that don't include the meat) served with a gorgonzola sauce or truffles.

I think every menu I've seen in Italy includes at least one meatless pasta. A traditional Roman pasta is pasta cacio e pepe, made with fresh pecorino cheese and pepper. The cheese kind of melts into the pasta, gives a great, mild flavor.

My husband really enjoyed a tagliatelle al limone dish one trip to Italy. And last year in Rome we twice ordered a plate of porcini mushrooms grilled with olive oil and lemon for dessert.

I have enjoyed carrot risotto on several occasions as well as many dishes made with zucca, similar to pumpkin. One was a lasagne, another a simple dish of zucca and garden fresh plum tomorrows stewed and drizzled with oil - YUMM! A cold salad of Tuscan beans made with potatoes and herbs was another memorable dish. Caponata alla Siciliana is another favorite.

I'm making myself hungry!

Thank you for this information. I am traveling in Rome this summer with my daughter who does not eat meat. Fortunately she loves cheese pizza and all kinds of pastas with veggies and meatless sauces. Hopefully I can broaden her tastes with some of these suggestions.

I think to eat well as a vegetarian in italy it is above all important to learn what PRODUCE IS IN SEASON during the time you are in Italy. Mushrooms are a fall dish, likewise truffles. In summer, the best thing to do is to stroll through the markets and see what is overflowing on the tables that morning. The Italian names for the vegetables will be posted right with the produce. Cheese is often sold at the markets, and that is another way to learn what is regional.

I have to disagree that it is easy to find authentic regional restaurants serving vegetarian menus throughout most of Italy. I cannot only eat starches and cheeses 3 times a day, and while Italian markets abound in beautiful produce, and traditional Italian cuisine has many wonderful legume dishes, it is not traditional to find restaurants serving them on their menus. Italians tend to regard dining out as a rare thing, and they eat so many vegetable dishes at home, the tradition is to eat an expensive meaty entree when dining out. ( In Liguria, it is fish.)

Armando al Pantheon in Rome is an excellent restaurant, and I've eaten there happily many times.

My son and I are both vegetarians and had no problems finding food anywhere in Italy, although I do admit to lots of pizza in Venice, lol.

My absolute favorite thing was ribelleta (sp?) - the most amazing vegetable soup/stew and a specialty of the Tuscany region. Da Leo in Lucca makes a delicious version.

I also had a pasta with squash blossoms (can't remember which) in Rome - yummy.

And lastly, in Rome there is a restaurant chain called Insalata Ricci - we ate their several times to get a salad fix, plus they had an incredible Vegetable Risotto.

Oh, I'm not leaving for 45 days - yes, I am counting down - and I'm already hungry.