Italy

[Guest guest]

Hi, .

Here is a little " blog " I did of my trip to Italy about 3-4 years ago. I did not

go to Florence, but if you go down to southern Italy, this is what you may find

in some of the cities.

First of all, I packed all of my necessary gluten-free products to get me

through in a crisis (and boy did I need THAT food sometimes!). I packed trail

mix, crackers, peanut butter, cookies and pretzels. I also took out of the

freezer 2 packages of Kinnikinnick hamburger buns and 2 packages of Whole Foods

almond scones and put them in shopping bag in my suitcase with my name on the

bag (this bag ended up traveling with me to Rome and London and was kept frozen

in my hotel's restaurant's freezer case). When I can't eat somewhere, I need

substance - hence all the carbohydrates! I also brought along lots of individual

Kraft dressings that I ordered before my trip so I could always have a salad. I

brought lots of plastic sandwich bags which came in handy.

ITALY - well, what they say about g-f food being so easily accessible in all the

pharmacies in Italy is just flat out wrong. During our week stay, every time I

saw a green cross on a building in Italy, I went in to investigate - probably

about 15 of them!). Only about half of the pharmacies had g-f food, and except

for two pharmacies, most of the others had very little packaged g-f food. Two

pharmacies had a tremendous number of g-f products to choose from!

Lunches were a horror in Italy - we walked the city of Rome every day, and all

we could find was pasta and pizza - not even a green salad could be found. It

was awful. I would eat a banana or ice cream and much on crackers or scones

while my husband ate lunch. I was so depressed, but knew I would eat well at

night at certain restaurants we had made reservations for. By the third day, I

got smart and put cheese and meat from our buffet breakfast into a sandwich bag

and then ate that with crackers during lunch! I had given my frozen bread to the

hotel to put in their restaurant's freezer and took out some scones every day.

The restaurant at the hotel we stayed at in Rome (Cicerone Hotel) only had an

exclusive high-priced restaurant that we didn't eat in. The hotel staff wasn't

all that nice, so I really didn't ask them to do anything. I was just so sad

inside that I couldn't enjoy the pasta and pizza in Italy that everyone else got

to enjoy.

As far as restaurants in Italy, make reservations the day before and let them

know you are coming and want g-f pizza or a g-f meal. These are the restaurants

I ate in:

ROME - We took taxis in Rome to all of these restaurants that served gluten-free

food.

Tulipano Nero is a great place for a quick meal. They had g-f pizza on their

menu. It was okay - not the best, but great to eat g-f pizza in Italy!

(Address-Via Roma Libera, 15, Rome; Phone-+39 (06) 581-8309).

Ripa 12 is a restaurant on a small street in Rome which also had g-f pizza -

again, okay. They also served g-f pasta. (Address-Via S. Franceso a Ripa 12,

Rome; Phone-+39 (06) 580-9093.

DaArturo's Restaurant is a NICE fancy restaurant - I had g-f spaghetti -

delicious. (Address-Via Aurelia Antica, Rome; Phone-+39 (06) 662-3408.

There was one more recommended Rome restaurant who served g-f food, but we never

made it there: La Fiorentina - (Address-Via Doria 22, Rome - near the

Vatican. I did not get a phone no.)

POMPEI - We took a tour to Pompei. The tour included lunch at the Celini-Hotel

Vittori in Pompei. The restaurant staff was knowledge about gluten and actually

whipped me up a wonderful dish of rissoto and a green salad on a moment's

notice. Sorry, I do not know the contact information for this hotel restaurant

because this was a delightful surprise. It is right at the base of the ruins of

Pompei.

SORRENTO - We stayed one night in Sorrento and I made reservations at this

restaurant that everyone said had g-f pizza. I had FORGOTTEN to call the day

before to request a g-f pizza. When I got there, I was crushed they did not have

g-f pizza for me and got so depressed, but was elated to be served g-f lasagne

that was delicious! There was even another celiac family at a table next to mine

who called the day before and ordered g-f gnocchi. Restaurant Pizzeria La Fenice

(Address-Via degli Aranci 11, Sorrento 80067; Phone-+39 081-8781652). You will

miss a meal of a lifetime in Italy if you do not eat here. It was wonderful to

walk the streets of Sorrento and walk down near the pier and eat here.

Enjoy!

Sue

>

> Hi Sue,

>

> A couple of tricks I use are to look around me at all of the fat people and

feel thankful that I have to pay attention to what I eat.

>

> Also, I try to make sure that my daughters and I do get to eat delicious

treats (i.e. like you did with gelato in Italy).

>

> Finally, for me I feel so sick when I accidentally eat gluten that

gluten-containing food looks like poison to me, even if it might look tasty to

someone else.

>

> On the other hand, your comments on Italy have me worried. My family and I,

including 4 celiacs, will be living in Florence next spring, for 6 six months.

I had heard it wasn't that hard to eat gf there . . . Please share any tips or

good restaurants that you found.

>

> Take care--

>

> (palmer@...)

>

> ________________________________________

> From: [ ] On Behalf

Of CalicoSue [susan.hersom@...]

> Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 9:51 AM

>

> Subject: [ ] More thoughts on my Asia trip

>

> Thank you for your responses! Celiacs can sometimes feel emotions that most

people don't - i.e., feeling deprived when you can't eat something everyone else

is enjoying, sometimes feeling isolated and different, not being able to totally

enjoy eating out. Boy, we could go on and on, couldn't we?

>

> When we visited Italy a few years ago, I had heard so many stories of how easy

it was to eat g-f in Italy. I found that not to be true, for me anyway. Of

course, I had my own food and the pharmacies in Italy had g-f food that I could

snack on, but to be able to easily eat lunch or dinner somewhere was very hard.

We took taxis at night to certain restaurants that I had researched before we

left to make sure they had g-f pasta and pizza, so I knew I had at least one

meal a day I could look forward to, but it was so hard to walk around the cities

in Italy during the day and not be able to enjoy a slice of pizza, etc. for

lunch like everyone else. All I could find to safely eat was gelato (and my

snacks). By the 5th day or so, I was starting to cry and dreaded eating the same

old thing again. I think I even started feeling resentful. I think my

deep-seeded fear is that I'm going to ruin our vacation to our son's wedding by

not controlling my emotions – and I know I WILL be deprived because I cannot eat

most of what will be offered to me in Asia. Thank goodness we will only be gone

for a week, but I'm a bit disappointed in myself for not being a stronger

person. Geez, I'm really opening up, aren't I?

>

> Any thoughts on how to control these emotions of feeling deprived and a bit

resentful?

>

> Sue

>